Forget New Year resolutions & Ditch Diets that Start on Mondays.

Forget New Year Resolutions

Before the end of a year everyone starts talking about what their new year resolutions are going to be, then after new year everyone tells you about the resolutions that they’ve set and asks you about yours. Every single health magazine has at least one article about resolutions, twitter is full of resolution tweets. By week 5 or 6 they’ve faded, been forgotton or failed. That is until next year.

I think it’s time to change our thinking. I think we should toss New Year’s resolutions out of the window as well as diets that start on Mondays. Rather let’s have an ongoing goal to change one thing at a time. It should be ongoing, one week rolling into the next, month after month, year after year, regardless of the day, date or year.

If you want to lose weight decide on what one thing you’re going to change and do it. If you want to lead a healthier lifestyle, decide on the one thing you want to change and start. When you’ve mastered that one change select the next one. Small changes, big impact. Forget New Year’s resolutions and ditch diets that start on Mondays. Start now, don’t wait.

Burning calories – daily exercises for the non-athletic

We all know that in order to lose weight we need to eat less or exercise more. I found this list of daily exercises for the non-athletic (that includes me!) with the number of calories burned. Calories can be burned by the hundreds by engaging in strenuous activities that do not require physical exercise. I’m sure athletes will also find some useful information that they weren’t aware of!

Daily Exercise for the Non-Athletic

Exercise                                                       Calories burned per hour

Beating around the bush                                             75
Jumping to conclusions                                              100
Climbing the walls                                                     150
Swallowing your pride                                                 50
Passing the buck                                                        25
Throwing your weight around (depending on your weight)      50-300
Dragging your heels                                                    100
Pushing your luck                                                         250
Making mountains out of molehills                              500
Hitting the nail on the head                                           50
Wading through paperwork                                        300
Bending over backwards                                               75
Jumping on the bandwagon                                        200
Balancing the books                                                      25
Running around in circles                                            350
Eating crow                                                                  225
Tooting your own horn                                                  25
Climbing the ladder of success                                   750
Pulling out the stops                                                      75
Adding fuel to the fire                                                  160
Wrapping it up at the day’s end                                    12

To which you may want to add your own favorite activities, including:
Opening a can of worms                                               50
Putting your foot in your mouth                                   300
Starting the ball rolling                                                   90
Going over the edge                                                     25
Picking up the pieces                                                  350
Let’s all get out there and burn some calories!

 

With thanks to  http://madtbone.tripod.com/diet_excuses.htm

More about the Weight Loss Kit

    

Weight Loss Kit

 

Weight loss is not just about the food your body needs. Losing weight (and keeping it down) requires more than knowing what to eat. To lose weight and be successful you need to feed your mind, body and soul.

 

Over the years, I found that assisting clients with a healthy eating plan alone is, in itself, not enough. I wanted to use the tools and skills that I acquired during my weight loss journey to inspire and motivate other people so that they may gain insights into the barriers that are preventing them from achieving their goals. I also wanted to share the skills and insights I learned in the hope that their weight loss journey would be shorter than mine and that by regaining their self-esteem and confidence they could lead the life they choose.

 

This prompted me to create and design interesting lifestyle products not only to help people lose weight, but also to help them achieve optimum all round, mental and physical health. The result is a unique and exclusive Weight Loss kit. It includes a book, “Low fat food for your mind body and soul,” 42 deal-a-meal recipes cards, 44 inspirational cards, a journal and fridge magnets.

 

All the products in the Weight Loss / Healthy Lifestyle Kit were designed so that they could be used in conjunction with any healthy eating programme – not just Unique Lifestyle’s. I want as many people as possible to benefit from the products. So whether you do your own thing or follow any one of a range of healthy eating plans that are available you can still use the products in the kit. It can also be used by dieticians, nutritional counsellors / coaches, lifestyle coaches as practical tools to be used in conjunction with the healthy eating programmes they provide their clients

 

CONTENTS OF WEIGHT LOSS KIT

BOOK

Low fat food for your mind, body and soul

by Sandy Goldberg

There are so many “diet” and self-help books on the market, and so many gimmicks about how to lose weight. Most of these contain conflicting and confusing information. I wrote the kind of book I wished I could have read during the 9 years I struggled to lose weight. I wrote the book to motivate and inspire people with weight problems, as well as to offer tools to help them change their thinking. It is a combination of inspirational messages and self-help techniques along with practical tips and advice.

The book is divided into four parts – something like four courses. It begins with my personal story of weight loss. It tells of my nine-year long struggle with 21 kilos of excess weight and how the struggle ended when I discovered mind, body and soul balance that helped me slip back into a bikini, a fitted evening dress and a pair of blue jeans.

 

Low Fat Food for your Mind, consists of a set of practical exercises that are designed to help unlock your mental barriers to losing weight. The main course, Low Fat Food for your Body, gives practical advice on weight loss, food choices and cooking. And for dessert, Low Fat Food for your Soul provides inspirational snacks for the soul to help maintain the balance you need in order to lose weight healthily.

  JOURNAL

Journaling has been said to be “therapy for the soul”. I believe using a journal is a self-discovery tool. I learnt an enormous about myself – patterns of behaviour that I only became aware of when I reread the journals I had kept over a period of time. It enables a person to record their, thoughts, experiences and feelings and often helps people to get to know themselves better, and to gain insights about themselves. Whether one chooses to write about food choices or moods and emotions doesn’t matter – what is important is that each individual writes about what is important to them. Just a few pages a day is all it takes. The insights it provides are invaluable.

 

SOUL SNACKS PACK

 

If people want to empower themselves they need to believe in themselves – believe that they can do it. Many people look at outside sources for inspiration and motivation. What they need to realize is that the power to change comes from within. However sometimes people need a spark to ignite the motivation and inspiration within them, to achieve their goals and dreams. It was with this in mind that I created “Soul Snacks” – a pack 45 cards containing inspirational and motivational quotations

 

DEAL-A-MEAL PACK

 

No weight loss kit would be complete without recipes. I found most of my client’s were looking for delicious, quick and easy recipes. Being rushed or tired at the end of the day and not having the correct ingredients often leads people to making the wrong choices. How often have you rushed into the shops on the way home, to buy ingredients for supper, only to find you’ve forgotten an  important ingredient?

 

Whether you are single or married, working in an office, or at home the Deal-a-Meal recipe cards make it really easy to follow a healthy lifestyle. They are small enough to fit into your purse, or shirt pocket. You can pick a card before you leave home, pop it in your pocket and shop on the way home. Once home stick it on the fridge with a magnet (included in the pack) and make a delicious dinner that is quick and easy.” 

TO ORDER / PRICE

The Weight Loss Kit is available directly through the Unique Lifestyle. For further information on how to order and prices click on this link http://sandygoldberg.wordpress.com/weight-loss-kit/

All products (besides the journal) are also sold separately and can be purchased directly through the Unique Lifestyle. For further information on prices and ordering, please look at the individual tabs at the top of the page

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE DON’T HESITATE TO CONTACT ME

 sandy@uniquelifestyle.co.za

 

How fast can I lose weight?

This morning I came across a quote in the newspaper, which I found inspiring. I’d like to share it with you.

 

“In business, as in life, we succeed not because we guessed the future correctly, but because were inspired by our dreams and had the courage to pursue them.”

Muzi Kuzwayo –

CEO TBWAHuntLascaris

South Africa

 

How does this relate to losing weight and dieting? Well have you given any thought to how much time you spend trying to predict the future regarding your weight? Questions like

 

·         How fast can I lose weight?

·         How much am I going to lose each week?

·         When will I reach my goal weight?

·         How long will it take me to lose _ kgs?

·         Which “diet” is going to work?

·         Am I going to fail?

·         Will I succeed this time?

·         When will be the perfect time to start?

·         Can I lose weight faster than my friend?

 

Often we spend so much time questioning how things will work out that we lose

our focus and our dream. So rather than wasting precious time trying to predict

the future

 

Be inspired by your dream!

 

·         Visualize yourself at the weight you would feel happy at.

·         Visualise

§  how you will look,

§  what you will be doing,

§  what you’ll be wearing,

§  who you’ll be with,

§  how you’ll be feeling

·         Run through your dream every day

·         Whatever you focus on consistently happens

·         Focus on the thinking positively and on your strengths

·         Today is all you have – so do what you can today and stop worrying about yesterday and tomorrow

·         Recognize your achievements and reward yourself

·         Have courage to pursue your dream!

 

 

Hungry?

“I had lunch (a big lunch) with a college student last week. An hour later, she got up and announced she was going to get a snack. Apparently, she was hungry.

  

By any traditional definition of the word, she wasn’t actually hungry.

She didn’t need more fuel to power her through an afternoon of sitting around. No, she was bored. Or yearning for a feeling of fullness. Or eager for the fun of making something or the break in the routine that comes from eating it. Most likely, she wanted the psychic satisfaction that she associates with eating well-marketed snacks.

  

Marketers taught us this. Marketers taught well-fed consumers to want to eat more than we needed, and consumer responded by spending more and getting fat in the process.

  

Marketers taught to us amplify our wants, since needs aren’t a particularly profitable niche for them. Isn’t it interesting that we don’t even have a word for these marketing-induced non-needs? No word for sold-hungry or sold-lonely…

  

Thirsty? Well, Coke doesn’t satisfy thirst nearly as well as water does. What Coke does do is satisfy our need for connection or sugar or brand fun or consumption or Americana or remembering summer days by the creek…

 

People don’t need Twitter or an SUV or a purse from Coach. We don’t need much of anything, actually, but we want a lot. Truly successful industries align their ‘wants’ with basic needs (like hunger) and consumers (that’s us) cooperate all day long.”

 

-The above is what Seth Godin marketing guru had to say about the tricks / techniques used by marketers to make us believe we’re hungrier than we are.

 

 

 

There are a number of marketing techniques used to get you to spend more and eat more. Yesterday I was standing in a queue at the supermarket checkout. The man in front of me was bored - he looked around - on his right was a stand of imported biscuits a brand which I had never seen before. He picked it up, read the back and popped it into his basket. Then he looked to his left at the choclate stand and selected a choclate which he also popped into his basket. I nudged my daughter and asked her if I should tell him how he had just fallen for the oldest marketing technique in the book and that he was a marketing manager’s dream. Being a teenager she did not want me to embarress her so I kept quiet.

 

Next time you go to the supermarket be aware of the marketing techniques to get you to spend more and eat more!

 

Here are some tips for you to remember before you go shopping

 

• Eat before you go
• Take a shopping list with you and only buy what you need
• Pick up a magazine and read that instead of eating a chocolate while waiting in the checkout queue
• If you are about to eat something ask yourself if your stomach is hungry or if you just feel like eating.
• If you haven’t had a chance to eat before shopping and you’re hungry – buy and a fruit or a bottle of water

 

 

Newsletter October – The Zen of Being Healthy

Are you feeling tired, weary, stressed, negative, burnt out or uninspired?

Have you lost your focus?

Let’s simplify health…. read this month article’s

 

THE ZEN OF BEING HEALTHY

 

 

newsletter-october-08-the-zen-of-being-healthy1

Attached is the October Newsletter. If you are not currently subscribed and wish to

receive Unique Lifestyle’s free monthly newsletter, please do so at www.uniquelifestyle.co.za

or email sandy@uniquelifestyle.co.za.  Your details will be added to our mailing list.

Enjoy it!

 

The power of choice – will you chose to lose?

During the time I struggled to lose weight I used every excuse in the book for why I was overweight, until one day……. I ran out of excuses! It took me 9 years to realize that I held the power in my own hands. I had the power of choice. I could choose to hide behind the excuses and stay overweight or I could choose to make some changes. Having run out of excuses I only had one choice left! Having made the choice, what had for years seemed like an insurmountable wall just crumbled away. It took me 6 months to reach my goal.

 

Most of us want our cake and we want to eat it! So many of us want to lose weight / lead a healthy lifestyle but  the price of giving up the food we love or learning new habits is often a price we’re not willing to pay. It is so much easier to wish away our weight. We wish we could lose it all in a week. We wish the next diet we find will be THE answer. We wish that we could have surgery. Basically we wish that what has taken years to put on would disappear overnight. The reality is that our bad habits have become an integral part of our behaviour and to learn new ones takes time, practice and patience.  It is so much easier to blame circumstances and make excuses rather than accept or take responsibilty, for the consequences of our choices.

 

Each one of us has the freedom to make choices. These choices determine our future and our success.

 

The choices that you have for your body are:

 

• The choice of a healthy lifestyle or a quick fix “diet”
• The choice of health or ill health (diseases such as diabetes, stroke, heart attacks, high blood pressure, high cholesterol are often as a result of an unhealthy lifestyle)
• The choice of how much food you eat.
• The choice of what food you eat.
• The choice of how your food is cooked.
• The choice to exercise or not do any exercise.
• The choice of how often you exercise.

Assuming the consequences of your choices are currently negative – imagine the positive impact on your life if you changed some of your decisions by making different choices. The impact of making different choices does not just affect your weight it also affects your energy levels which in turn has positive consequences on your health. It’s YOUR CHOICE – you can chose to stay the same or chose to lose!