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
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Enjoy it!
In the same way that you need to find balance when you take into account the food you provide for your body, you also need to find balance in feeding your mind and soul.
Most of you lead busy and stressful lives. You have so many roles to play – spouse, sibling, parent, boss, colleague, friend, child……the list goes on. With each of these roles come many responsibilities and duties which often result in an enormous amount of pressure. As you get busier doing everything for everybody else your own needs take a back seat and you’ll suddenly find that you have no time to do anything for yourself.
It is often in this situation, when you are tired and stressed, that you tend to overeat or make the wrong choices. The result is that your weight increases and your clothes become uncomfortable. Equally important is that because you are eating incorrectly, you become lethargic & suffer from lack of energy. These issues affect your self-esteem and moods and there is no doubt that this has a negative impact on your happiness and that of your family.
So what’s the solution?
Make a date with yourself! Yes you heard me, just as you would schedule an appointment with a friend or colleague, so you need to make an appointment in your diary at least once a week to do something that you enjoy, find relaxing and that is FUN.
What kinds of things you do, depend on what you enjoy. Make a list of 5 things you would do if you had all the time in the world. It may be taking a class, having a massage, painting, dancing, going to gym or even just sitting on a bench and watching the sea. Whatever it is do it and do it now.
Remember when you learn to make time for yourself and do things just because they’re FUN you generally have more energy, feel better about yourself and get even more done! This has a domino effect because when you’re feeling better about yourself, you are usually more focused about what you eat. You’ll find that you make time to shop for healthier food and eat three meals a day. You will also make healthier choices more often.
Pamper yourself you deserve it!
With so many diets on the market why do so many people still struggle with leading a healthy lifestyle and weight problems?
I believe is because the weakness with most weight loss programmes is that they only focus on eating healthily.
A healthy lifestyle depends on a number of factors
If we only focus on what we eat, our weight usually see-saws because all we are doing is “dieting” and to many people the word diet is synonymous with deprivation.
We need to stop thinking about diets equally deprivation but rather look at health, wellness and happiness.
In other words to improve our health we need to modify our lifestyle. A healthy lifestyle cannot guarantee health, however it can reduce the risk of
Often when illness strikes we rely on our doctors to “cure” us. We get medication to take but often the medication is treating the symptom and not the cause. What we fail to realize is the role we can also play in the cure.
I always find it so sad when one hears about people who on hearing that they have a serious health problem, change to a healthier lifestyle. Often when it is too late. We have to go back to basics and take an active part in the maintenance of our health. We need to look at preventing illness and promoting our health.
The solution is to lead a healthier (and more balanced) lifestyle.
To lead a healthier lifestyle (for your body) you need to look at
And
So rather than going on yet another diet change to a healthier lifestyle! It’s much more fun – and has so many health benefits!
How many times have you tried following a healthy eating programme to lose weight and either put on weight or stayed the same?
Often a healthy eating plan (on its own) is not enough – it is only when we “get our mind right” that we will start to achieve success. Having low self-esteem is just one of many things that can stop you from achieving your weight loss goal.
What exactly is self–esteem? It is the feeling of worth you have about yourself. It has two facets – your self image and your self confidence. Your self-image is your perception of yourself and it can either be accurate or quite misleading. Self confidence on the other hand is your belief in your ability to achieve the things you want to.
Often people have high self esteem in one or more aspects of their lives and are therefore highly successful in those areas of their lives while they may have low self-esteem and therefore do not achieve in other areas of their lives.
The most important factor determining whether you make a success or not is recognizing that you have a poor self image and understanding it are the first steps in correcting it.
So is low self-esteem stopping you from losing weight? Do you believe you can’t? That your age, your hormones or the fact that you’ve always been overweight are the reasons you can’t achieve your goals? Actually it isn’t any of these things it is your belief, your perception of yourself in other words, your low self-esteem in this area of your life that is holding you back. Until you change your thinking, you cannot change your body.
There are a number of tools you can use to improve your self-image, visualization and affirmations are just two. Improving your self image or believing you can lose weight are skills you can acquire. The more you practice them the more you will start believing in yourself. Your perception of yourself will improve and so will your self esteem.
Start with small steps. If you have a lot of weight to lose and you don’t believe you can lose it all let your first goal be losing 2kgs. Find a healthy eating programmed that fits in with your lifestyle and lose 2 kgs. As you achieve the small goals you set for yourself your self confidence and self image will start to improve. Then set a second goal which is to lose 5 kgs. By now people will start noticing a weight loss (they usually notice after 7kgs) and will be paying you compliments. This will also improve your self esteem. You will havebroken the negative cycle of a poor self image.
You can train your unconscious mind to think about things differently.
Try this exercise which can be used as a start to changing the perception you have of yourself about not being able to lose weight.
Start by making a list of all the things you have done successfully, then think of any areas of your life (parenting, career, work within the community, etc. where you have been successful or achieved something that you set out to do. Write down all the characteristics that you currently have, as well as all the skills and knowledge, which you have acquired in an area where you have been successful. Looking at the list, what skills, knowledge and characteristics do you have that you could apply to losing weight?
Now paste the list up somewhere where you can see it and look at it every time you think that you cannot achieve your weight loss goals.
Low self esteem can “only make you fat” if you allow yourself to believe that. If you change your thinking you can change your body. High self esteem has many benefits. It promotes good relationships, a positive outlook and good health. You feel happier and more in control of your life.
Sandy Goldberg's Blog 