Weight Loss Battle: Why Bad Habits Are So Difficult to Kick?

I have decided to stop trying to lose weight.

NO, actually not.

It's already December and I AM STILL FAT! ☹ I can't commit to exercise regularly so I tried to focus on eating healthy instead, but even so I still fail in this department. I've tried to wean myself off white stuff especially white rice and white bread over the past few weeks, I tried to quit sugar but my unhealthy habits keep breaking my weight loss effort.

Why bad habits are so difficult to kick?

Our daily behavior runs on autopilot. For example when your phone rings, you naturally go to answer it. If someone throws you a ball, you catch it. Other habit-forming activity like brushing your teeth and exercising are formed through repetition.

Psychologists have begun to understand that a lot of our everyday behaviors are often caused by circumstances or related to specific situations. For example, you eat pretty healthy at home but you can't do that at a social gathering. You might bite your nails when you watch TV or when you concentrate at work without thinking about it. You might find that you eat a large dish of ice cream whenever you get home in the evening.

Five Ways to Developing a New Habit

Dr. Arthur B. Markman, the member of Dr. Phil Advisory Board provides these strategies focusing on breaking bad habits and how to replace them with good ones.

1- Define Bad Habit and Commit to Change
You need to identify the habit you want to change. If you decide to arise early and exercise each morning, commit to act in a specific way 100% of the time, and never make excuses or rationalizations during the process until this becomes automatic.

2- Disrupt the Habit
Disrupt the specific actions that make up the habit. An obvious way is to avoid the situations in which you usually do your bad habit. For example, if you want to stop drinking alcohol as part of a move towards a healthier lifestyle, you should avoid the people and places where you used to drink.

3- Replace Bad Habit with Smart Habit
Sometimes you cannot change environment. If you often bite your nails in bed, then you cannot stop going to sleep just so that you can quit biting your nails. When you cannot change the environment, try to replace your behavior with something else. For instance you are trying to quit biting your nails in bed. Try doing something else that will keep your hands busy when you get ready to go to sleep. A manicure before bed, or maybe do a crossword puzzle before going to sleep.

4- Create Habit Diary 
Regular writing make you feel good. Writing down positive things that happened to you or tracking your mood can help you identify good patterns in your life which you should make time for and identify bad patterns that should be eliminated.

5- Reward Yourself
When you successfully devote some time to your new habit, give yourself a reward. Each time you reward yourself, you reaffirm and reinforce the behavior. But make sure your rewards don't compete with your new behaviors.

I have tried food journaling before, but the habit journal or mood journal thing is something new to me. Keeping a mood journal sound so much fun. Perhaps it is a better way to understand my mood and tracking my daily goal.

It's now your turn, share in the comments: 
- What bad habit you have successfully dumped recently to become a better person? 
- What major step you have taken to ditch your destructive habit?

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Weight Loss Chat: Why You Should Stop Doing Cheat Meals

I haven't been updating this blog for many many weeks. Let's just assume I have had blogging block. I have yet to find my blogging mojo but I think I better just type along to to get over the block and get back to blogging.

I don't remember in which post did I mention that I've gain somewhere around 83 kg and since then I have stop weighing myself. I am afraid of any possible bad news. What if I surpass that 83 kg mark? Going 85? 90? Touch wood. What a shame. I've been trying to lose the baby weight since I gave birth to my second child 5 years ago, and till now I'm still trying! It's encouraging to read those amazing weight loss stories on the net, how fat people started their weight loss journey 1 year ago and have lost weight today, getting fitter than ever. But part of me feels a bit disappointed for my poor progress.

Weight loss failure. Is it because I cheat on my diet too much? I used to believe in cheat days, cheat meals...to keep you sane and happy while dieting. But come to think of it, cheat meals may have gets in my way, way too much that my focus get distracted and a healthier lifestyle gets pushed aside. I read a worth reading article on Authority Nutrition about why you should stop doing cheat meals. Here I'm going to talk about those few points from the article that I can relate to.

Why You Should Stop Doing Cheat Meals

1. Because Cheat Meals Can Feed The Addiction
For some people, moderation is the key to diet success. But not in my case. When I give into food cravings—once I start, I just can't stop. I want more and more, more than I want to. Giving into these cravings will just make the cravings even stronger. The only way to fight cravings and beat the addiction is by avoiding these foods COMPLETELY, period.

2. Because You Might Binge and Eat Way Too Much
My cheat meals often turns into binge eating. Worst of all, one cheat meal become cheat days, and then cheat week. The dark side of cheat meals.

3. Because Cheat Meals Make You Feel Guilty Afterwards
After a binge, I used to feel bad, guilty and sad about the out-of-control eating. Negative emotions can affect your health. The food that might comfort you for a moment, now making you feel guilty, miserable, anxious, depressed or low on self-worth. Such shame leads to more bingeing and sets off a cycle that’s hard to break.

August is officially over. I've been eating so well these past week, not because I want to but because I had to. My husband quit his job and join a new company recently. He is being stationed to this new work place which is miles away from us. Switching school is not easy in the middle of the year, so the kids and I have no option but to patiently wait to reunite with the father only on weekend. And sometimes once in two week when we are short of cash. Since the daddy is not around, we are no longer hang out outside a lot like we used to be. The kids and I have not been eating out lately. I don't even remember the last time I grabbed junk foods. I make sure to always get healthy food in stock for a week because I am too lazy to grocery shopping every two or three days. And even though I am poor at meal planning I had to do it to save money. All this changes resulting in 5 kg weight loss - when I weighed myself last week.

I am feeling hopeful. My SEPTEMBER NO CHEAT CHALLENGE start today. No sodas, alcohol, fried, processed foods! I can't promise myself to be perfect but I'll try my best.

Let's talk:

• Do you cheat on your diet? Is it OK for you?
• How do you enjoy your cheat meals?
• What do you do after cheat on your diet? 

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The 7 Dumbest Weight Loss Lies We Believe

I hadn't post on this blog over 2 weeks. The children and I spent the school holiday at my parents. I hadn't update because when I'm not at home, I find it quite tricky to blog and get things done just by using my smartphone. Not only blogging. When I'm not at home, I'm prone to cheat on my diet.

Who else having trouble coping with diet hurdles? Share in the comments the challenges you are facing when you try to lose weight and how do you overcome?

I believe that one of the many reason why me and most people who try to lose weight keep stuck where there are, is because they've been making excuse after excuse about why they can't shed the weight. When I was a young working mom, I blame peer pressure for not losing weight. My office mate often brought food to work. It's awkward to be someone who turn down food when everyone around you is eating. I always feel it's consider rude to not eating food people offer you, isn't it? After I had my second child, I quit my job and becoming a stay at home mom. I gain freedom from peer pressure but as a stay-at-home mom the kitchen is now fully accessible 24/7 to me and here's another lame excuse for not losing weight. That's a lie!

We all believe lies. We might not notice it. But it creeps into our minds and lives in such a sneaky way. Let's find out 7 weight loss lies we tend to believe and start doing something about it.

1. I can't lose weight because I have the fat genes

Genetics may play a role, but they're not entirely to blame. Jessica Alba famously quoted as saying she was terrified about getting fat because she got fat genes from both sides of her family. She grew up in a "heavily overweight" family. So she started make her own meals, cooking with fresh ingredients and lean protein since the age of 12 to beat the fat genes.

Genes account for only 20% of your health. It is always your own decision that will shape your destiny. According to a research, lifestyle especially diet can switch on or off the genes that control weight. It will be very hard to change the inherited eating habits, but I believe it's possible. For example, we are not born with the knowledge of finance. But we learned the skills and practice it and made into fixed habits - habits that can be changed.

2. My friends and family believe I can't lose weight. I am born to be fat.

Not everyone will understand your journey. That’s fine. It’s not their journey to make sense of. It’s yours. The key is PATIENT. Losing weight may be a long journey. Accept it. You are not gaining 50 pounds overnight, so don't expect weight loss to happen quickly. Work hard in silence, let success make the noise.

3. It'm too old to lose weight and get to the size I want.

Age is irrelevant. You are never too late, never too old to lose weight and feel great. Life goals and accomplishment do not have an age limit.

4. I cannot afford to get healthy. Healthy food is expensive.

It doesn't have to be. One way to save money on healthy food: buy seasonal produce from farmers’ markets. A study finds that grains, vegetables, fruit and dairy foods are actually cost less than foods high in saturated fat, added sugars or salt if you compare the price by weight or portion size.

5. I will gain back all the weight I lost.

You are predicting the worst future. When you do this, you will develop anxiety which will trigger your cravings for salty, sweet and high-fat foods. Margaret Thatcher was spot on about this: "Watch your thoughts for they become words. Watch your words for they become actions. Watch your actions for they become habits. Watch your habits for they become your character. And watch your character for it becomes your destiny. What we think, we become." 

When we start to repeat the same negative thoughts in our heads over and over, we will eventually start to believe it. Replace negative thoughts with positive ones and you'll start having positive results. Here are 60 examples of positive self-talk.

6. Party season all year round, I can't stick to a diet.

Easter, Memorial Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Labor day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, birthdays, anniversaries, etc. There are always excuses to hurt ourselves. The path to weight loss does not have to be bland, boring, and lonely. You don't need to lock yourself away in a secluded ivory tower for the sake of weight loss. It just takes a little forethought.

I still need to improve myself in this area - planning my meal ahead. It is always wise to expect what to be serve at the party you're attending and decide in advance if you want to stay on course with your weight-loss efforts or if you want to treat yourself to some extras at the party.

7. I am too busy to exercise

Lie lie lie.We all have the same 24 hours in the day. It's how you manage your time that matters. Some cool tips from fitness expert and the author of  Shortcuts to Big Weight Loss (Rodale), Chris Freytag: Treat your workout like you would any other appointment—it has to be planned, specific, written down, and communicated to your family. "Don't just say, 'I'm going to exercise today. Be clear about what you're actually going to do, meet a friend, or sign up for a class.”

To break free of  lies you've been telling yourself, you must first identify and own the lies rather than suppress or deny it. Whenever you feel out of control, bored, or sad, identify the negative thoughts. Journaling is the best way to pinpoint them. Challenge these negative thoughts by finding and stating the truth.

Do you told yourself a similar lie? What's the biggest (weight loss) lie you tell yourself? How did you overcome the lie? 

Share in the comments. 

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Dieting and Mental Health: What’s the Connection?

The following is a contributing post by Kristeen Cherney. She is a freelance health and lifestyle writer who also has a certificate in nutrition. Her work has been published on numerous health-related websites. Previously, she worked as a communications and marketing professional. Kristeen holds a BA in Communication from Florida Gulf Coast University, and is currently pursuing an MA in English with a concentration in rhetoric and cultural studies. When she's not writing or studying, she enjoys walking, kick-boxing, yoga, and traveling.

Your mind play a role in your diet success but it can also play tricks on you. Find out as Kristeen elaborate here how to reshape your thinking to create diet success.

Whether you’re new to weight loss or not, you’ve likely heard the old adage that success is dependent on using more energy than you can take in. (In other words, eat fewer calories and burn more calories by exercising). Yet for most people struggling with their weight, the situation isn’t so clear-cut. Being overweight is often about more than just eating too much and sitting around. For some, underlying health conditions like diabetes or hypothyroidism can cause even more challenges.

Perhaps an even more complex aspect of weight loss is your mental health. Dieting takes a big mental commitment, and failing to set realistic goals can take an extreme emotional toll. On the flipside, other dieters form their goals based on their emotions rather than in a healthy way. For long-term dieting success, discover how you can tap into your mental power the right way without doing harm.

Dieting and Brain Power 
The brain signals everything in your body, including when and what to eat. Your appetite is controlled by the hypothalamus, a fancy term that refers to a small gland located near the pituitary gland in the brain. The hypothalamus plays a key role in the endocrine system because it creates hormones. There is a misconception that thoughts alone control your appetite—in fact, the hypothalamus is partly responsible. It creates hormones that help produce corticotropin, which in turn controls your appetite.

The brain also controls dieting habits in other ways. Adrenaline production from the adrenal glands can cause “on-the-go” feelings, which can also decrease your need to eat. Also called epinephrine, adrenaline is actually controlled by the brain.

When you go on a diet, you can’t necessarily switch the production of corticotropin and adrenaline into high gear. Still, it’s important to be mindful of your brain’s role in dieting so you can better prepare yourself to have will-power against cravings and emotional eating.  

How Emotions Affect Your Eating 
As your body starts going through its transformation, it’s normal to get emotional from time to time. Losing weight is a serious accomplishment that you have the right to get choked up about! With that being said, your emotions can also present some unwelcome challenges during the dieting process.

Emotional eating is most prevalent among women, and is thought to be attributed to high levels of cortisol in the body. Cortisol levels also peak when you’re stressed. Stress- or binge-eating can be a dieting nightmare because a large amount of calories can quickly undo any progress you’ve made.

Serious Health Concerns

When you start a new diet, the prospect of getting your dream body is exciting. Patience can also be difficult at this stage because you want to lose extra weight now. Some dieters start out with good intentions but may let their emotions and impatience get the best of them. This is when unhealthy eating habits can form. Eating too little can put extreme stress on all parts of the body, and even cause disruptions in hormones and metabolism. In fact, many people who go off of their diets end up gaining weight back for these reasons. In more serious cases, eating disorders can cause health problems.

It’s also important to note that eating disorders are more prevalent among dieters who suffer from depression. Low self-esteem and self-worth are signs of depression, as well as a lack of interest in normal activities. Take a step back and determine why you’re dieting. Do you want to feel better and gain better health? Or are you worried about how others view you?

Solutions for a Better Dieting Mentality

Your brain affects everything, including your attitude. It’s time to utilize your mentality to gain better dieting habits and reach your goals in a safe, effective manner. Consider the following solutions to help keep your mind focused while also keeping your body healthy as you reach your weight-loss goals:

• Start out slow, and aim to lose one to two pounds per week.
• Try eating a larger breakfast and a smaller lunch.
• Count the number of bites you eat at every meal. This will help keep your brain focused and prevent mindless eating.
• Go for a walk or call a friend when cravings strike in order to prevent binge-eating.
• Add more movement to your day, but keep workouts to 30 minutes at a time. This will prevent eating too much to compensate for a massive loss of energy.
• Give your brain and your body enough rest: aim for at least seven hours of sleep per night.

Finally, sharing your dieting goals with a friend or dieting network can keep your mind focused on your goals while also providing emotional support. Dieting alone can get boring after a while, and can also make you feel isolated. Don’t be afraid to share your successes with the world too—you deserve the attention.

Now, it's your turn...share in the comments:

How do you stay mentally strong and what is your strategy to win the weight loss battle?

Resources
• Mind-Body Medicine Practices in Complementary and Alternative Medicine. (2013, March 29). Retrieved from http://report.nih.gov/NIHfactsheets/ViewFactSheet.aspx?csid=102
• Seven Proven Tips for Weight Loss Success. (2012, September 12). Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-mindful-self-express/201209/seven-proven-tips-weight-loss-success
• Why Stress Can Cause People to Overeat. (2012, February). Retrieved from http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletters/harvard_mental_health_letter/2012/february/why-stress-causes-people-to-overeat

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The Scale Factor: 4 Reasons Your Body Weight Changes on the Scale Throughout the Day

Yesterday. 6th day on Slim-Possible-April Challenge. I know that the number on the scale doesn't define my health and self-worth. I've heard of that like zillion times. I have decided not to weighs myself until the end of this April, which is the end of this Slim-Possible-April self-challenge but I don't know why yesterday my heart was so itching that I want to step on the scale and peek what's my number so far. Ha ha~

The last time I weighed myself I was 74.3 kg, that was early April. I feel that I had been improve a bit. I have learnt to not dwell on binge eating whenever I slipped my diet, I stopped eating heavy meals at night, I am not exercising religiously but I'm doing pretty good than before. I banned bad foods in my house because I believe you'll tend to eat healthy foods if you're around healthy foods. Having done almost all the right things, I expect to see something positive --- on the scale. But this is one of the most regretful decision I've made so far. Ha ha sound so pathetic. I read the scale yesterday: 75.9 kg! I step off and on the scale to see if the number change. Because I thought it could be something wrong with the scale. May be broken? But when I weighed myself again it still read the same number. If I could explain my mood in graph, my mood changes at that time have dropped drastically to the lowest point. I felt extremely sad all of a sudden. C'mon, this is ridiculous, Honeybee. I just restarting my weight loss journey a few days ago and changes doesn't happen overnight, right?

I know I'm not alone. We've all been there. We don't want to be a slave to the scales, but sadly we are sometimes.

UNDERSTANDING THE SCALE FACTOR

Here are four things we all need to know about our changing weight:

1. Period

My period just ended yesterday when I weighed myself. Women will retain water during their cycle. Much to my relief, this probably could explain the weight gain.  Just being too dramatic. *rolling eyes*

While some women do not gain any weight, others can gain between 3-5 pounds of water weight during her menstrual cycle. Bowel problems and a natural drop in progesterone are the most common reasons. Also, magnesium levels in the body typically go down in the days before your menstrual period starts. As the magnesium level drops, insulin levels rise resulting in the need for more sugar. When these cravings hit, you may eat 200 or more calories than you would normally.

2. Water retention

If you suddenly consume more sodium than you are used to, you will likely retain water. Conversely, low consumption of salt can result in temporary weight loss. I remember my sister once shared me her first "slimming center" experience.  She was measured and weighed before treatments. Treatments includes slimming massage and hot blanket therapy. The blanket therapy session made her sweat profusely and after the treatment she lost 2 pounds. That weight loss is primarily water weight. Not fat. Water can alter your weight by as much as 10 pounds (or more). This is one of the main reasons diuretics are so popular— weight loss tea, salt water cleanse, fiber supplement, etc. They flush the water out of your system, resulting in weight loss but the loss is temporary.

3. Glycogen stores

Your liver stores carbohydrate in your body in the form of a substance called glycogen. For every gram of carbohydrate that your body stores via glycogen, it also stores three grams of water. When you cut back on carbs (or dramatically cut calories) the body burns of this glycogen. Conversely, this weight comes back as soon as you eat carbs (or increase calories dramatically.) So if you gain 5 lbs 2 days after a big carb up, this is probably the explanation.

4. Workout

"A person's scale mass is a combination of muscle, fat, bone, the brain and neural tract, connective tissue, blood, lymph, intestinal gas, urine, and the air that we carry in our lungs. Immediately after a workout routine, the percentage of mass in each of these categories can shift as much as 15 percent," says Jeffrey A. Dolgan, a clinical exercise physiologist at Canyon Ranch in Miami Beach, Fla. "Intense workouts cause variability on the scale due to factors like hydration status, inflammation from muscle damage repair (we call this delayed onset muscle soreness), even the amount of intestinal by-product or urine and blood volume."

I don't want to be a slave to the scales anymore, but I can keep this one, maybe?

To end this post, I want to include a quote from Steve Maraboli's Life, the Truth, and Being Free: "Get off the scale! It’s true, the scale can only give you a numerical reflection of your relationship with gravity. That’s it. It cannot measure beauty, talent, purpose, life force, possibility, strength, or love. Don’t give the scale more power than it has earned. Take note of the number, then get off the scale and live your life. You are beautiful!" Indeed. 

What method do you use to measure weight loss progress? Do you think the scale is still useful? 

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Weight Loss and Self Criticism: 60 Example of Positive Self Talk

"I am frustrated with diets."

"I have no time to make healthy and tasty meals."

"I am depressed because of my weight." 

"I regain weight easily."  

"I have been fat all of my life and I should stay fat all my life." 

"I cannot lose weight. I don't know how to be thin."

"I have been struggling with losing weight for years."

"My body is trained to be fat."

"I gain weight because I am afraid I will starve."

"I feel in danger if I am thin."

"My parents do not support me to lose weight and thin."

"I attract unwanted sexual attention if I am thin."

Self critic. Can you relate with the above self-talk? A little self-criticism is a healthy means of increasing personal growth but too much can lead to self-doubt and stress.

 

If you still remember I posted this picture of me and my children last year to discussed about weight loss freedom. I always insecure about myself. I refuse to have my picture taken because my body is fat and ugly. I am the one who would always volunteer to took family pictures so I would not be in them. Or else I would hide behind others or use my children as props to cover my body. My friend thinks I look good in the picture and I just being self-critical.

It's true I'm my worst critic. I hate my body. And I am giving myself critical and demeaning messages. I am too hard on myself.

What do you tell yourself about yourself? 

Self-talk is so familiar that sometimes we don't even notice its existence. Negative self talk can limit you, increase your stress level, bring down your self-esteem and confidence. I realize now that turning negative self-talk into positive self talk is vital for successful weight loss. If you have negative beliefs that you're ugly and fat, you will stay ugly and fat, making extremely difficult for you to lose weight. To release the belief that you are ugly and fat, it is important to change your negative self-talk.

"Watch your thoughts for they become words. Watch your words for they become actions. Watch your actions for they become habits. Watch your habits for they become your character. And watch your character for it becomes your destiny. What we think, we become. My father always said that... and I think I am fine."

― Margaret Thatcher 

Here are 60 example of POSITIVE self-talk:

1. I am celebrating feeling light and alive at my perfect body weight of one twenty-one.

2. I am successfully losing weight and be thin.

3. I am supposed to be thin even though every one in my family is fat.

3. I am happily in charge of my own life. I am enjoying creating my own reality.

4. I am enjoying the thrill of finding many things I can do to lose weight. 

5. I am feeling relaxed without eating. I know how to comfort myself without eating. I am happy.

6. I am feeling awesome being thin regardless of my age.

7. I have the discipline to lose weight. 

8. I am feeling comfortable giving up excess food. 

9. I am feeling energized working out.

10. I am free from my obsession with food. 

11. I am focused and control my eating when I watch TV.

12. All my diets succeed.

13. I am patient when I am on a diet. I know that weight fluctuates.

14. I feel good about myself without the approval of the scale. I am fine without it. 

15. I eat less so I can be happy with my weight. 

16. I see my new "thin" self. 

17. I am strongly training myself to be thin and stay thin all my life. 

18. I think, I eat , and I exercise like a thin person. 

19. I reprogram my mind for me to be thin. 

20. Staying thin is possible.

21. I eat food moderately. I know that food is always abundant.

22. I am feeling extremely safe if I am thin.

23. I am feeling loved getting support from my family to lose weight and be thin.

24. I am feeling protected and attract healthy sexual attention if I am thin.

25. I am beautiful and thin.

26.  I am happily celebrating my progress.

27. I am socially confident.

28. I am proud of my stomach, hair, skin, arms, _________.

29. I am as capable as anyone else out there

30. I am comfortable in front of people and say the right things.

31. Anyone who meets me will remember how fascinating I am.

32. I find things out when no clear answer is defined.

33. I am worthwhile, successful, and happy.

34. I eat food that has a lasting benefit for me.

35. Occasionally I indulge myself in tasty food.

36. Vegetables and fruits strengthen me and I love to eat them.

37 I love going for a walk and seeing the outdoors.

38. I love to eat healthy food!

39.I only eat what I need to sustain myself.

40. Running makes me feel good.

41. Exercise is a time for me to get stronger and reflect on life.

42. I am successful in anything I try.

43. I don't worry about anything.

44. I accept the things I cannot control.

45. I always give my best effort and that is good enough.

46.I am smart, confident, and capable.

47. I love challenges and the gain from overcoming them.

48. I am always cool, calm, and understanding.

49. I am organized and know what I need to do.

50. I am learning and growing.

51. I am special, unique, and very important.

52. I do not require the approval of anyone, except myself, to be happy.

53. I love myself for my own uniqueness and value.

54. I am beautiful, both inside and out.

55. I am kind, loving, and smart, and that is who I will be with.

56. I will focus on the awesome opportunities that are ahead.

57 Positive Weight Loss Affirmation

58. I'm happily making weight loss progress.

59. I am feeling carefree handling my situation.

60. I'm willing to try this new exercise. 

Read also: How to Use Weight Loss Affirmation Effectively    

This is how I look in tagged picture. My belly is so big makes me look like I'm seven months pregnant! And 77 kg is pretty heavy for my small frame. Mr.Husband took this candid shot last week during a visit to Crocodile Farm. He secretly took few pictures of mine lately. I hope it's because he admired me like the first time. But no, I know this is his silent way of telling me to lose weight. I have gained 3 kg since Christmas.

I have had second thoughts before decided to publish this shameful picture here. But then I decided to pursue because this is part of my accountability. I don't want to look like this anymore in 6 months to come. Yes, I hate the way I look in this photo but I want to replace this negative thought into positive thoughts pattern. "I am strongly training myself to be thin and stay thin all my life." I believe every time you think a positive thought or make a self compliment comment you are actually affirming it as your personal truth.

What do you tell yourself about yourself? Do you let yourself off the hook or do you put yourself under unnecessary pressure?

Let me hear your voice in the comments. You can also connect with me on Instagram @honeybeegeb
  

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Happy New Year! Top 10 Inspirational Words of Wisdom

This is the opening post for the year 2014. Happy New Year everyone!

First off, thanks to all Her Weight Loss Diary's followers, friends, family and stalker for your support in 2013. Thank you for the encouraging comments, motivation, and the listening ears. May this new year brings all the crazy colors and fun in your life. 

It was so sad and embarrassing to say good bye to 2013 because I DID NOT complete my weight loss goal. Not even close. But to give up? It's way too early to call it quit. I posted this question before, about setting a deadline for a weight loss goal. I believed weight loss deadline could be a great motivation booster. Hence I set my goal to be on my ideal weight before my birthday last November. But that never happened. That soft deadline clearly did not help me to stay motivated until my goals done. It stresses me out, to be honest. Another year goes by without any major accomplishment. So this year losing weight with a deadline is not going to be part of the plan anymore. Giving weight loss a deadline is creating a sense of urgency that sometimes coupled with unrealistic expectations. And when things don't go as planned you may end up with frustration and that will altogether kill your motivations. Furthermore, weight loss is not about exercise and diet but it's about healthy lifestyle. It's a lifetime commitment.

I don't want to apologize for being an annoying blogger. You read a lot about weight loss stuff here but you were like, she's not going anywhere. It's true that I am not a success story yet. Well, MISSED DEADLINE IS NOT A DEATH SENTENCE. I don't need to feel bad about myself after not achieving my weight loss goal on a certain time frame. And there's no reason to worry about what friends and family might think. I'm not in a competition to win approval from anyone. I am in my own race to be healthier. And as we're entering a new year, I think it is important to reflect and re-evaluate myself and my weight loss goal. 

Here are top 10 inspirational words of wisdom worth sharing. I hope these wisdom can help you to reevaluate your failed goals whatever your goals might be and I hope it stays with you throughout the year, inspires you to set realistic and obtainable goals you can actually reach.

Imagine becoming successful
1. What you declare, you will achieve. - Abraham Lincoln

3. If I have correct goals and I keep pursuing them the best way I know how, everything falls into line. If I do the right thing, I am going to succeed. - Dan Dierdorf

4. If you don't design your own life plan, chances are you'll fall into someone else's plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much. - Jim Rohn

Have faith in what you can do
5. If you can dream it, then you can achieve it. You will get all you want in life if you help enough other people get what they want. - Zig Ziglar

6. Experience taught me a few things. One is to listen to your gut, no matter how good something sounds on paper. The second is that you're generally better off sticking with what you know. And the third is that sometimes your best investments are the ones you don't make. - Donald Trump

Take action and do your best
7. Move out of your comfort zone. You can only grow if you are willing to feel awkward and uncomfortable when you try something new. - Brian Tracy

8. If I had to select one quality and one personal characteristic that I regard as being most highly correlated with success, whatever the field, I would pick persistence and determination. The will to endure to the end, to get knocked down seventy times and get up off the floor saying, "Here comes number seventy one."
- Richard M.Devos

Learn from your past experience, and try not to repeat your mistakes
9. If you mess up and learn nothing, it's a mistake. If you mess up and learn something, it's an experience.
- Mark McFadden

10. A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them. - John C. Maxwell

I don't have "losing weight" in my New Year's Resolution list this year. What about you, what's in your bucket list for 2014? 

 

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Weight Loss: How to Save Your Diet In the Middle of December

Hello December.

Can you hear the Christmas bells ringing? Christmas is just around the corner I am super excited. I absolutely love December because it's the Christmas season and I simply love Christmas. This is the month we celebrate the birth of Jesus, and it's also the time for the family to get together. Eating cookies is a good thing too!

I haven't update this blog in a while because I feel less motivated. I blew my diet BIG time and I gain 2 kg. I totally pigging out most of the time and sometimes I just feel like giving up and forgetting about the whole idea of weight loss. Even though December is a joyous month, I know it can be awful for people with eating issues like me.

I admit the thought of binge in December did cross my mind. I tell myself, I will start fresh after the holidays. But then I think again. If I splurge my diet during this holiday and I probably gain 2 or 4 kg, wouldn't it be like having a double effort to lose weight on the New Year’s weight loss bandwagon then?

It's difficult to stick to your diet during the holidays and it's not hard to understand why. Huge dinners and parties will always be a major part of the holiday season. Maintaining a control is a huge challenge. 

Are you going to stick to your diet to lose weight during Christmas or are you going to start your diet in January?

I find this useful tips on Binge Theraphy so I decided to reblog this here as a reminder to myself before heavy foods coming my way. I hope you will find it useful too.

1. Don’t use the impending New Year as an excuse to binge

No more "I will lose 10 pounds" New Years resolutions this year. Each morning, when you wake up, begin anew by telling yourself, "today I will do my best to go toward health and wellness." And each morning, set a mini goal for yourself. A mini goal might be, "I will allow myself to sample some office goodies intentionally and consciously, but will not binge on them," or "I will do 10 minutes of meditation at some point today," or "I will reach out for support today if I want to binge" or "if I've already begun eating something that I didn't intend to in order to prevent a binge."

2. Don’t engage in black & white thinking

If you find yourself eating something unconsciously, like snacking on chocolates from a bowl in your office or eating too many bagels one morning, don’t let that turn into a binge. Remember that it happens. Just because you ate a handful of Hershey’s kisses, doesn't mean you have to spend the rest of the day bingeing on cookies and cakes and eggnog or whatever else it is. Stop, take a breath, and be kind to yourself. Take a moment to reorient yourself and bring yourself back to the present. What happened? How did you wind up at the chocolate bowl? Was it a conscious choice or were you putting something off, or were you upset or stressed about something? Think backwards to what might have happened. Forgive yourself and accept that it happens. Make a plan for something else that you’re going to do to make you feel good about yourself that day. If you think that you might not be able to resist, call a support person and tell them that you’re feeling shaky because of the unintentional kisses, but your intention is not to binge and you could use a check in call. Let them know that you’ll call them at the end of the day.

3. Focus on people rather than food

Before holiday parties or luncheons, make sure that you've eaten before you go so that you are able to focus on the people around you rather than the food. If you find that you are only focused on food, take some time to breath and try to refocus on someone interesting. Make a goal for yourself at the party, such as, you are going to talk to 3 new people and try to focus on that rather than food.

4. Don’t drink too much at holiday functions

Binge drinking is a prelude to binge eating. It immediately brings you into an unconscious state which then does not allow you to have a choice around food.

5. Be cautious about leftovers

If you host a party, either have someone help you to clean up or have someone else clean up for you. Often for hostesses with eating issues, it’s not the party that’s challenging, it’s cleaning up. Leftovers can be a huge binge trigger for many people. If tit is for you, give them away or bring them down to a hungry/homeless person.

6. Don’t keep trigger foods at your desk at work

Just because the holidays are here doesn't mean you need to have a bowl of candy on your desk for people. If you must bring it, put it out of reach from yourself so that you need to actually think about what you’re doing every time you get up to grab something.

7. Eat a breakfast with lots of protein each morning

This will keep you satisfied and your blood sugar stable so that you’re not looking for a pick me up come mid-morning.

8. Recommend a Wellness program at your office

Instead of junk food, suggest that people bring fruit baskets. Make a suggestion that the food baskets you receive be donated to a homeless shelter nearby. See about starting a lunchtime yoga class for your office.

9. Stay active

The winter months are a good excuse to hibernate. Don’t succumb. Get out of the house or office. Take a vigorous walk during your lunch break. Go ice skating! Go window shopping! Move. Activity is a stress reliever. Letting go of stress will help you not binge.

Losing weight during the holidays can be incredibly rewarding. You feel better. Your clothes fit better. You avoid the post-holiday feelings of guilt. You don’t need to make weight loss your New Year’s resolution, because you are already doing this. And best of all you are healthier.

Are you going to stick to your diet to lose weight during Christmas or are you going to start your diet in January?

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What to Do When Life Doesn’t Seem to Be Working for You

When things happen in the world that seem so far beyond our individual control, it can feel unsettling. But don’t give up on your goals and dreams just because “the time isn’t good”... you can still make 2013 the year to uncover a personal breakthrough! 

Even in tough times, you get to decide how to respond to certain conditions, opportunities, and outcomes—both good and bad. 

Life will always be a series of choices and YOU get to decide on what will move you closer to your goals, or farther away from them. External forces will always be part of the equation, even during the good times when the world is thriving. 

When people ask me about the single most important ingredient to success, I always share the same response: realizing what’s making you achieve success, and then realizing what is stifling your success. 

Sometimes recognizing the things that are NOT working in your life can be painful, yet VERY powerful to shaping the life you want. 

Don’t try to rationalize them, make excuses for them, or hide them. This is when it’s even more critical to take personal inventory and evict those excuses, rationalizations, and hidden habits that don’t serve you. These things will keep you from the life you want to be living. 

Let me give you some examples (do you see yourself in any of these questions?): 

• Do you want to be active, fit, and strong? Then you have to stop making excuses about your weight, diet choices, and lack of exercise. 

• Do you want to be in a loving relationship based on friendship and respect? Then you have to stop rationalizing why your mate is so unsupportive or why you are not communicating well. 

• Do you want to embrace Monday mornings and feel joyful about going to work every day? Then you have to stop hiding your true passions and go after whatever it is you really want to be doing day in and day out. 

• Do you want to lose the debt forever? Then you have to stop ignoring your spending habits and get real about a budget that will pull you out of debt and allow you to reach financial freedom. 

• Do you want to feel more connected to the people in your life, such as your children, friends, and colleagues? Then you have to stop complaining about your poor relationships and figure out why you don’t feel as connected as you’d like to be. 

These things can be painful to look at because the truth is that you have to do something about them in order to make it work in your life. 

You’ll have to say no to the second helping of dinner and the dessert to follow and go through the action steps to get into shape... You’ll have to confront your partner about the areas that need work... You’ll have to get past fears about changing your job or professional path... You’ll have to cut back on your spending and be a bit more frugal... You’ll have to take a good hard look at your personal relationships and perhaps consider your own shortfalls and weaknesses in communicating your needs and concerns. 

Plain and simple, you will have to do something uncomfortable. 

Successful people don't waste time in denial (or complain or make excuses for that matter). They face situations like a warrior. They look for the warning signs, they find out why things aren’t working, and they go about fixing them- even when fixing requires problem solving, hard work, risk, and a level of uncertainty. 

It’s okay to identify a problem even though you haven’t a clue about how to go about solving it right away. The first step is just recognizing the issue, and then having faith that you’ll figure it out with careful attention to it. That’s how successful people live—in constant focus on goals, on results, on problem solving, and on the actions that get them to where they want to be. 

Following are three things to do constantly in pursuit of your goals and dreams, however big or small: 

• Awareness: Keep your awareness on the feedback you are getting from life and decide to address the situations immediately. Don’t bottle up feedback, cast it aside, and avoid it like you would a pile of dirty laundry or a stack of unopened bills. Life tells you things every day. Do this. Don’t do that. Think about this. Try me. Forget that. We live in a world that seemingly encourages us to live on autopilot. Successful people fly manually every day and so should you. When those feedback signals come in, listen to them and use them in planning your next step. 

• Commitment: Commit to finding out why things aren’t working and learn what will fix them. Once you start the process it will be much easier to continue. Nothing fruitful stems from inaction. 

• Trust: Trust that making changes to the situation will ultimately bring about the best results. Sure you might go through a bit of discomfort during the change, and some unlikely or unwanted outcomes, but in the end you will triumph! 

So are you ready to admit the things that just are not working out? 

Make a list of the things in your life that are working against your success and ask how the situation can be improved. Commit to tackling just one of those issues and be brave! 

If you need help organizing those “things” in your life, try using the following list of categories. I recommend reflecting on each of the 7 areas and ask yourself, what’s not working here in each one and then brainstorm 3 potential solutions. 

1.) Financial Goals 

2) Career/Business Goals 

3.) Free Time/Family Time

4.) Health/Appearance Goals

5.) Relationship Goals

6.) Personal Growth 

7.) Making a Difference 

Remember, by facing what is not working, you can only improve your life! 

Share in the comments:
What is a difficult or troubling situation in your life? How are you creating it or allowing it to happen? What are you pretending not to know? What is the payoff for keeping it like it is? What would you rather be experiencing? What actions will you take to create that? By when will you take that action? 

About the Author:

Jack Canfield, America's #1 Success Coach, is founder of the billion-dollar book brand Chicken Soup for the Soul® and a leading authority on Peak Performance and Life Success. If you're ready to jump-start your life, make more money, and have more fun and joy in all that you do, get FREE success tips from Jack Canfield now at: www.FreeSuccessStrategies.com.

*Reblog from JackCanfield
Image from that arthletic girl

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30 Days 30 Letters: An Open Letter To My Diet Buddy #14 - Planning & Prep for Vacation Diet Battle

This is letter #14 in Her Weight loss Diary's new series - 30 Days Letters to My Diet Buddy project. The road to weight loss can be tough. If you want to feel like you aren't alone in your diet endeavors, buddying up can hold you accountable for every bite you take. Subscribe here, because you don't want to miss any letter.

P.s. Don't hesitate to share your thoughts, the best thoughtful comments will be featured every Friday.

Email:

Dear Diet Buddy,

The kids' school holiday begin this week for 2 weeks. We have decided to spend the whole week at their grandparents'. It's great to relax but I have vowed to break my weight loss plateau this month, so premeditated schedule is a must to make sure my weight loss plan don't unravel.

1. Eating Clean Diet Plan

• Avoid processed foods - processed foods are any food that has a label which means that more than one ingredient was used to make that food. They can be loaded of hidden added sugars.
• Cook meals at home using fresh ingredients - Restaurant foods and processed foods both tend to be very high in sodium
• Cut down on refined grains (white rice, white flour)
• Eat whole foods - they are food straight from farms. Eg. whole fruits and veges, low fat dairy product, unsalted nut, whole grains. 
• Eat a lot of fruits and vegetables
• Have more water - try a spritz of lemon or lime to jazz it up.

2. Set aside time for exercise

I don't exercise a lot when I'm away from home because, I know this is sounds funny but there's no 'hidden space' (except our bedroom) at the parents' house where I can secretly exercise. :P I hate to be seen exercising in 'public'. So I plan a set of exercises which I can do upon wake up, or do spontaneously while watching TV.

3. To-do-list and Activities with Kids - to keep me busy so I'm not lounging around at home all day surrounded by food.

• Make paper dolls
• Gardening with kids
• Create a village play mat
• Visit a local farm
• Go to a local pool
• Play Angry Birds with water ballon
• Throw ball painting
• Play water bottle bowling

Do you plan out your day ahead of time? How exactly you do it? Share in the comments.

Yours truly,

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30 Days 30 Letters: An Open Letter To My Diet Buddy #13 - Weight Loss Wisdom of The Week

This is letter #13 in Her Weight loss Diary's new series - 30 Days Letters to My Diet Buddy project. The road to weight loss can be tough. If you want to feel like you aren't alone in your diet endeavors, buddying up can hold you accountable for every bite you take. Subscribe here, because you don't want to miss any letter.

P.s. Don't hesitate to share your thoughts, the best thoughtful comments will be featured every Friday.

Email:

Dear Diet Buddy,

The very reason I write this series of letter in the first place is to offer your encouragement. I find it helps to have someone to encourage, and be encourage by! I hope you have read all my previous letters. You notice that we have all the support we need from this people on the blog land. Should you have missed any of the previous discussions, I want to highlight a few of those weight loss wisdom I learned from these blogger. 

1) Making WEIGHT LOSS MISTAKES when trying to lose weight is common. The way to handle is by being aware of that mistakes and try to do small changes to tackle it. Kate, who's the weight loss success story herself and the blogger behind the Fat to Fit Geek shares her golden tips to success: Not to fill your plate for one sitting.

2) This one is not from the 30 Days Letters series. DO YOU USE A FOOD JOURNAL TO KEEP TRACK OF WHAT YOU EAT? I hate calorie counting because sometimes it get me clueless about how much calorie I have taken, I feel that it's so complicated to analyze every details of what I put in my mouth. But Marion from Affection for Fitness has a better idea. Food journaling will encourage you to seek simple foods. Genius. So I'm back to the journaling routine this August. 

3) DO YOU HAVE A BAD HABIT? Disrupt bad habit by changing the method of performance like how Dana of Kiss My List do:

4) Being STUCK AT A WEIGHT LOSS PLATEAU can be awfully discouraging. It happens to everyone. Leslie from Pampers, Play Dates & Parties shares what worked with her: Make a  weight loss chart. Weight loss chart is a great tool to help you see on a daily, weekly or monthly basis, just how much weight you're gaining or losing. Sounds like a great idea. 

I've read some other little trick to lose weight which not involve diet and exercise like chewing gum to curb your cravings, Jessica Alba's double corset for weight loss, and using a rubber band technique to control addictions.

What weight loss trick work for you?

Yours truly,

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