Plan Your Weight Loss

OK, so you know what you want to achieve, but you need to plan what to do:

• What information do you need?
• Whose help do you need?
• What equipment do you need?

Work it out and go get it.

Social Events And Dieting

The Duke University Medical Center says:

“Eat something before going to an event with alcohol. The effects of alcohol are felt much more quickly on an empty stomach and can lead to overeating and over-drinking. Also try to drink one glass of water before each glass of an alcoholic beverage.”

Alcohol & Calories

Amongst adults who drink, alcohol accounts on average for nearly 10% of their calorie intake, but a survey by Alcohol Concern of 1,000 drinkers in Wales found that of those who said they usually kept track of the number of calories they consumed, 43% did not include calories from alcohol as part of this.  You're only fooling yourself if you do this. A large glass of wine or a pint of beer or a pint of lager has around 185 calories.

Are You Deceiving Yourself?

The UK NHS says that 8 out of 10 people think they exercise enough, but in reality only 3 out of 10 actually do. You should be doing at least 30 minutes five times a week.

Getting Results

Holly Rigsby of www.FitYummyMummy.com says: “Too often we get hung up the idea of ‘getting results’ as if they are a fixed end point – putting happiness on hold until the ideal body is achieved. Appreciating the process is just as important as reaching the goal. Enjoy the journey; recognize AND CELEBRATE THE SMALL SUCCESSES ALONG THE WAY. These are the changes that matter most and are key to true and lasting results.”

When Family/Friends Don’t Help

If you want to lose weight, your family/friends may not be helpful. This may because they know they need to lose weight too, but don't want to. So they may try to sabotage you by tempting you with food they know you like.

If you're in this situation, plan your responses to common sabotage tactics from family members. For example, if a family member is often tempting you with unhealthy food, try these responses: “Thanks, but I just ate” or “It looks delicious, but I will pass”. If they are persistent, you can say “I’m trying to do something good for myself. Please support me in this.”

For more support and ideas check out this web site - it's aimed at kids and teens, but has resources for anyone who wants to get rid of those pounds: www.weigh2rock.com

Weight Loss Plateaus

The Duke University Medical Center says: “Flush out excess water. Often, plateaus are due to fluid retention. To eliminate excess fluid, restrict your salt intake, drink more water, exercise, and eat more fruit--especially cantaloupe, honeydew, oranges, and bananas, which contain water-eliminating potassium. (Just don't go overboard - they still have calories.)”

Justifying What You're Eating

Do you find yourself justifying what you're eating? For example:

• I've had a hard day at work
• I deserve a treat now and then
• I didn't eat any breakfast
• I must have burned loads of calories when I was at the gym

It could be that you're giving yourself an excuse to eat unhealthy food.

Is it an excuse or a reason?

Children And Food

The authoritative Cancer Project says: "Avoid using food as a reward. Offering food as a reward encourages children to disregard their hunger cues—leading to overeating later in life. Celebrate good behavior with a fun outdoor activity or in some other non-food way.

Live Long, Live Well

In a study presented at the International Congress on Obesity in Stockholm 2010, researchers tracked more than 5,000 military conscripts starting at the age of 20 until up to the age of 80.

They found that at any given age, an obese man was twice as likely to die as a man who was not obese and that obesity at age 20 years had a constant effect on death up to 60 years later.


If you're a young man, you may not be that worried now about what happens to you when you're 60, but along with the obesity goes increased chances of some cancers, breathing problems, back problems, diabetes, arthritis, depression and much more. You could be obese and be perfectly health and then one day drop dead, but it's not that likely. You are much more likely to suffer ill health and restrictions in your pleasure in life long before you reach 60.

Feeding Your Heart

Karen Knowler, the Raw Food Coach, says: “When the heart is hungry the hand tends to reach out, and down the chute goes the ‘love’. For real and long lasting weight loss, all areas of life need to be looked at. How happy are you at home, in your relationship, in your work, in your everyday life? How emotionally, spiritually, mentally and physically fulfilled are you? As long as you feel empty inside you will likely have a tendency to fill it up with something, anything, and that, more often than not, will be food.”

Lose Weight With A Food Diary

A food diary can help you eat better. Often writing down everything you eat means you end up eating less. Several studies have confirmed that keeping a food diary helps you lose weight. A study from Kaiser Permanente’s The Center for Health Research (USA) shows how important this is.

“The more food records people kept, the more weight they lost,” says Jack Hollis PhD, a researcher at KPCHR and lead author of the study published in the August 2009 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. “Those who kept daily food records lost twice as much weight as those who kept no records. It seems that the simple act of writing down what you eat encourages people to consume fewer calories.”

Dealing With Cravings

Duke University Diet & Fitness Newsletter says: “Try thinking of cravings as ocean waves. Just as a wave recedes after it peaks, a craving will recede if you do not feed it with your thoughts or actions. Instead of giving in to a craving right away, give it some time to pass. Distract yourself for a few minutes by reading or writing in your journal, taking deep breaths, going for a walk, talking about how you feel, or using such positive self-talk as "This urge won't last forever, and I am in control. I am feeling uncomfortable, but I can wait this out." Remember, bingeing might make you feel better for a short while, but you will feel better in the long run if you find a healthier outlet instead.”

Maintaining Weight Loss

The US government Centers For Disease Control says:

“To maintain your weight: Work your way up to 150 minutes of moderate‐intensity aerobic activity, 75 minutes of vigorous‐intensity aerobic activity, or an equivalent mix of the two each week. Strong scientific evidence shows that physical activity can help you maintain your weight over time. However, the exact amount of physical activity needed to do this is not clear since it varies greatly from person to person. It's possible that you may need to do more than the equivalent of 150 minutes of moderate‐intensity activity a week to maintain your weight.”

Helping Overweight Children

Helping overweight children can be very difficult. There's a web site that has lots of resources for parents and kids - do check it out. There's also an excellent book written by Dr Robert A Pretlow called Overweight: What Kids Say.

Cancer And Weight

A study published in the British Medical Journal (November 2007) links cancer to body weight.

Researchers examined the effect of body mass index (BMI) on both cancer incidence and death among 1.2 million women aged 50 to 64 over five years for cancer incidence and seven years for cancer mortality. 

An increasing BMI was associated with a significant increase in risk for 10 out of 17 specific types of cancer. Similarly, risk for death also increased with BMI for most types of cancer.

Arm yourself with facts like this to give you yet more reason to lose weight and keep it off.

Breakfast and Weight Loss

Studies have shown over and over again that people who eat breakfast in the morning routinely think more quickly before lunch, have lower stress levels throughout the day, and actually eat less over the course of the day.

Research conducted by Heather Leidy, assistant professor specialising in appetite control at the University of Missouri Department of Nutrition and Exercise Physiology, found that overweight ‘breakfast skipping’ teens who eat a protein-rich breakfast feel fuller longer and are less hungry throughout the day compared to when they skip breakfast or consume a normal breakfast. Even more interesting, she said, are brain scan findings illustrating that eating a protein-rich breakfast reduces the need to snack due to food motivation and food reward urges.

Natural Help For Pets And Farm Animals

If you have pets or farm animals, you can use homeopathy for simple, everyday problems. We have a new homeopathic kit available.

This kit doesn’t take the place of advice and treatment from a properly qualified veterinarian, but can be used for minor ailments for all your animals. 

24 Remedies, 30 Potency and the SOeSsence Flower Formula in liquid form. Includes an explanatory booklet, so you'll know how to use them.

Aconite, Arnica, Apis, Aco/Ars/Arg-n, Arsenicum, Belladonna, Cantharis, Cocculus, Drosera, Euphrasia, Gelsemium, Hyp/Cal, Hepar sulph, Ignatia, Ipecacuanha, Merc corr, Ledum, Nux vom, Pulsatilla, Rhus/Ruta, Silicea, Sulphur, Symphytum.

Buy the homeopathic pet kit>>

Touch Your Toes For Artery Health!

A less flexible body indicates arterial stiffening, especially in middle-aged and older adults. Arteries stiffen as a consequence of age and arteriosclerosis. Age related stiffness occurs when the elastic fibres within the arterial wall (elastin) begin to fray due to mechanical stress. The two leading causes of death in the developed world, myocardial infarction and stroke, are both a direct consequence of atherosclerosis. Increased arterial stiffness is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular events. If you’re in this age group and have difficulty touching your toes, you need to take remedial action – diet, exercise and other health changes. Read my eBook “500 Health & Happiness Tips” to get more great tips: UK | North America  and elsewhere.

Childhood Eczema and Asthma

As a child I had really bad eczema on my hands and feet. I knew no one else with the condition. I didn’t know anyone with asthma. How things have changed now with asthma, eczema and rhinitis being all too common among our children. A large international study just published online in the respiratory journal “Thorax” has shown that eating three or more weekly servings of fast food is linked to the severity of allergic asthma, eczema, and rhinitis among children in the developed world. Of course, children on a good diet can get these conditions too, but it does suggest that fast food may be, at least in part, contributing to the “epidemic” in these childhood conditions.

Goals and Priorities

Take a couple of moments to think of some of the important goals in your life. What are they? Do you feel motivated and energised by them? This is a really common idea now that we talk about how important it is to have goals in our lives that help us get up in the morning and tackle the day with zest and enthusiasm. The extremely successful industrialist Henry Ford said: ¨Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.” 

So, you’ve got your goals, but are they really making a difference to your life? Think about your priorities – what are they?

5 Top New Year's Resolutions

Unsurprisingly consumer Magazine Which? has found that the top five new year's resolutions are:

1. Do more exercise

2. Lose weight

3. Eat more healthily

4. Take up or restart a hobby/activity

5. Learn a new skill

New year is, of course, a good time to start thinking about how to be healthier and happier, but it's a continuous process - not something that has a definite goal to achieve. Even weight loss is more about what happens after you achieve your goal, and not just about the goal itself.

My book "500 Plus Health And Happiness Tips" can help you along the way.

But remember to be realistic about what you can achieve. Setting yourself too ambitious targets is a recipe for disaster. But also you need to have confidence in yourself and what you can achieve. Don't get discouraged if you make mistakes or aren't always at your best, as long as the general trend is in the direction you want to go, you'll eventually achieve that new year's resolution in full.

Why Sit Ups Arent The Best Thing For Your Core

Sit-ups once ruled as the way to tighter abs and a slimmer waistline, while “planks” were merely flooring. Now planks — exercises in which you assume a position and hold it — are the gold standard for working your core, while classic sit-ups and crunches have fallen out of favor. Why the shift?

One reason is that sit-ups are hard on your back — by pushing your curved spine against the floor and by working your hip flexors, the muscles that run from the thighs to the lumbar vertebrae in the lower back. When hip flexors are too strong or too tight, they tug on the lower spine which can be a source of lower back discomfort.

Second, planks recruit a better balance of muscles on the front, sides, and back of the body during exercise than sit-ups, which target just a few muscles. Remember, your core goes far beyond your abdominal muscles.

Finally, activities of daily living, as well as sports and recreational activities, call on your muscles to work together, not in isolation. Sit-ups or crunches strengthen just a few muscle groups. Through dynamic patterns of movement, a good core workout helps strengthen the entire set of core muscles — the muscles you rely on for daily activities as well as sports and recreational activities.

For more on the benefits of strengthening your core, purchase Core Exercises from Harvard Medical School.