Think Slim, Issue #013 - 2lbs of indulgence

July 30, 2005

Look great, feel great

Hi

We were away in Western France at the start of this month enjoying a camping holiday by the sea and that's where I had my eyes opened to one of the secret reasons French women stay so slim.

The absence of chocolate cakes!

It was my son's birthday and so we looked for the usual fattening celebratory chocolate covered calorie-laden cake and there were none to be had – at least not that we could find in the local supermarket or patisserie – just fruit tarts. Beautifully presented fruit tarts, just not my idea of a birthday cake at all.

We ended up melting chocolate over a Madeira packet cake type thing and decorating it with Smarties. Probably more fun than a bought one!

But I reckon it's not just the lack of tempting chocolate cake that helps our French friends – all the supermarkets were filled with fresh good food and the packets and prepared food aisles were tiny in comparison. A different way of life there...

Hope you're enjoying some sunshine this month wherever you are

Love

P.S. There are quite a few postings on the Think Slim blog this month. See them all at http://smallchange.typepad.com/thinkslim.

Contents

Feature article : 2lbs of indulgence

When do you start thinking that you need to lose a few pounds? When you feel your waistband getting a bit tight? When you need to buy new clothes in a larger size? When you see pictures of yourself on the beach?

Most dieters tend to get to a certain weight before deciding it's time to do something about it. For a lot of us that happens only when we have a lot of pounds to lose.

And it takes a huge effort to lose that weight.

Even so, some of us HAVE succeeded at losing over 100lbs - often the same 10lbs over and over again - the classic yo-yo diet syndrome.

But you know how it is when you reach your target weight - you just want to eat all those things you haven't let yourself eat for ages. And before you know it your weight has crept up to your dreaded threshold level again and you're thinking once again you need to go on a diet.

Now if we use crash diets to lose the weight quickly we often lose muscle tissue as well as fat and end up putting just fat back on to replace it.

And if we do this time and time again all that happens is that we end up with more and more fat in our bodies.

But there IS an alternative.

What if you did things differently next time you reached your target weight? What if you reset your weight maintenance threshold?

What I recommend is continuing to weigh yourself every week or even every day after you reach your target weight and never letting yourself go more than 2 pounds over your ideal weight without doing something about it.

At that point doing something about it can be as simple as reducing junk food, eating more healthily for a week or two and moving about a bit more.

And what happens if you do that?

You never have to diet again! Due to natural fluctuations in your weight (because of hormones and patterns of eating and so on) you'll hit that threshold often and end up eating healthily, reducing the junk and moving a bit more most of the time.

The beauty of this system is that it does allow you to indulge - up to 2lbs worth of indulgence at a time - but you always look beautifully slim forever more.

This month's tip : Exercise presence

If you're not looking forward to an exercise session, learn the trick of staying in the present moment.

Just be curious about how you feel right now, not how difficult it's going to be, for example, to run for the next 20 minutes.

Putting on your running shoes - do you feel OK? Of course you do! Doing your warm up walk, do you feel OK? The answer's "yes" again. Taking this running step, how does that feel? If you're still doing it, then it must be OK. If you concentrate on one step at a time and only think about how you are feeling in that moment nothing is that difficult.

And do you know what? If it's not OK you can stop at any time! Tell yourself that too and chances are you'll get through your session more easily than ever before and feel great at the end.

Recommendation: Shameless self promotion

I'm very excited about the launch of my site www.SimplySlimming.com which gives me the chance to deliver the program I take my private coaching clients through to a wider audience.

It's all about ditching diets and diet aids and simply adopting 24 key habits which will set you up for a life of being slim.

UPDATE: The Coaching Program is now available at http://www.weightlosshandbook.com

Whatever you do, sign up for my FREE newsletter "No More Diets" and get a complimentary copy of my 15 page report "How to lose weight without dieting – 7 secrets the diet industry doesn't want you to know". Subscribe at www.SimplySlimming.com

UPDATE: While you can still sign up for a free report there - the "No More Diets" newsletter has now been combined with "Think Slim"

Wishing you a fantastic month, looking and feeling great

Janice Elizabeth Small

P.S. I hope you enjoyed this newsletter. If you have any comments or suggestions for future issues, please let me know. I'd love to hear from you. Just reply to this ezine.

P.P.S.Know anyone else who might enjoy it? Please pass it on. If you received this from a friend you can sign up for your own copy at....

www.weight-loss-motivation-program.com

copyright © 2005, J. Small. All Rights reserved.

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