Remembering to Cut down on the refined carbs

Just got back from my evening walk (have a audio great book to accompany it) and am settling down to a nice evening of telly and relaxation.  I came across this interesting article in the LA times - it's rather atkins - and includes a timely reminder about the unuseful way the body processes refined carbs, such as white flour, sugar, potatoes and white rice:

http://www.latimes.com/health/la-he-carbs-20101220,0,5464425.story?page=2&utm_medium=feed&track=rss&utm_campaign=Feed:%20latimes/features/health%20(L.A.%20Times%20-%20Health)&utm_source=feedburner

Going Into Christmas Positive and wth a game plan!

Go Into Christmas Positive and wth a game plan!

I am doing OK - strategies are working and I am starting to gain the right weight for me! I was aware I was going into Christmas concerned that I might go completely off track. Brains tend to complete what they picture, so I am starting to fill my brain with how I want to spend Christmas - making heatlhy choices, and really enjoying TINY amounts of the other stuff!

I have  made a decision it's going to be easy!  I know that old belief of  it's going to be hard used to be an almost a self-fulfilling prophesy,  if you expect the lure of that certain food to be irresistible then it will be.

I have a plan, the best way to for achieving our goals.  I know there is going to be snacks around, lots of them, and loads of nice food to pick on.  I have decided to reach the end of the christmas break having eaten around 1200 calories each, by choosing healthful foods and stopping eating when I am full.  I am making a point of saying no when somebody says Jenny would you like one of these, even if it is from the children! (OK maybe I'll say yes  once or twice!).

I have  also made a decision not to feel guilty.  I am already practiced in the strategies of losing weight and I am continuing to use them - putting exercise and keep an eye on the calories.  I'll also stand on those scales next Tuesday!  I want to know how well things are going to fine tune them if I need to.

Stuffing yourself in imagination curbs stomach pangs

Here's a link to an interesting piece in the new scientist.  Researchers in Pennsylvania have found that if we think about eating a particular food it may help us to eat less of the real thing. Vosgerau and colleagues studied the effect of mental processes on habituation – the lessening of our response to a stimulus when it is repeated. The prospect of a 10th bite of chocolate, for example, arouses less desire than the first chunk did. Feedback from digestion is too slow to cause such rapid habituation, so it is thought that mental processing controls it, at least in part.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19846-stuffing-yourself-in-imagination-curbs-stomach-pangs.html

golly, I can see why I have accidentally put on weight

Working upstairs yesterday came down for tea, to a smell of frying food, a fabulous sweet and sour, complete with battered chicken had been prepared for tea.  Ate the chicken and picked out the veg, and organised with my partner to go off shopping, where we bought a good low cal meal for tonights tea.  It being evening we arrived back with 2 packs of reduced doughnuts.  They looked very sweet, had a small bite of one and that was enough, thanks to the lightning process.  I can't believe the changes I have made in my view of certain foods - a few years ago I would have eaten at least 3 doughnuts!

There were a lot of doughnuts left - I don't like wasted food very much, but remembered that many of the useful qualities of the components of these food were wasted already and wasn't tempted at all.

yummy

Great lunch today - very healthy and enjoyable, and focused on what fits in with my outcomes as I was looking through the fridge.  A result.

I have just written my outcomes down on a piece of paper and popped them in my purse as a reminder.  I am thinking about my outcomes whenever I walk into the kitchen, look in the fridge, look in the cupboards etc, walk or drive past a shop.  I might even put some little sticky shapes onto things like doors and cupboards to remind me as I move around the house.  

Hmm cheeese!

Another challenge, preparing for tea and looking in the fridge and found the fantastic cheese we bought on the market at Amsterdam weekend before last. Had a little bit, and then some more. Yum.  I don't want to dislike cheese, it's delicious, specially that stuff.

I started to think in lots of unuseful ways, beat myself up a bit, for cheating already, I'll never do it etc..
I decided to focus on what I want and remembered I don't have to be perfect to lose weight. These kinds of challenges are a normal part of the learning process. I have put in the lightning process, it's now one of those very rich things that I only want to eat a little of.

My First Challenge

I have been working all day, and I am tired.  Next to me on the table is a big box of fox's biscuits brought by across by a relative at the weekend.  It was looking attractive, even more so now that it was something that I shouldn't have really.  I have moved the box, put in the lightning process, and remembered that is a high fat and very sweet food that I could eat occasionally.  Actually for me when I remember the extreme sweet taste of this type of biscuit  and greasy texture I feel quite indifferent. I am stopping working now and am taking a break.

 

So, what precisely do I want that's positive and how am I going to do that?

My goal is much more specific now.  It is positive; it's something that I can do, (eg I am not relying on my partner to stop buying cake); it's specific, in terms of the what, where, when and how it's realistic and achievable. 


I've popped all of this in the present tense - with future tense the unconscious mind can assume that these changes are happening in the future. I want to notify my unconscious mind that these changes are happening now! 


Time: A sensible rate of weight loss is reckoned to be around 0.5kg to 1kg (1lb to 2lb) a week. So 2 - 4 kg a month, 3 - 6 months.  Lets split the difference and I am losing 12kg over 4 1/2 months and gaining my size 10 figure!


How: I am eating 1200 calories a day and exercising for 30 - 40 minutes 4 - 5 times a week. I am making healthful eating choices at breakfast lunch and dinner and snacks during the day afternoon and evening. I am weighing myself once a week on a monday.  


Small steps are good - I am losing my first kilo and gaining more comfortable clothes, I am exercising for 30 minutes twice a week.


I have spent some time thinking about what I am seeing, hearing and feeling when having achieved it, and I have also spent some time exploring the resources to achieve it. 


I know the lightning process will be very helpful - there are lots of foods around, crisps for lunch, and the food the children like to eat for tea (chips, melted cheese, big bowls of pasta) which are part of their diet which will not feature much in mine.  I know I will be choosing to eat differently than them and I know it is worth it.  


In my cupboard I have picked out my favourite size 12 walking trousers, and they are now there where I can see them. I reckon about 3 kilos should do it.  I am looking forward to wearing them. 

What precisely do I want that's positive, and how am I going to do that?

"Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"
"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the Cat.
"I don’t much care where--" said Alice.
"Then it doesn’t matter which way you go," said the Cat (Alice in Wonderland)


I am going to spend a bit of time focusing on outcomes, thinking about what I want and how I am going to get there.  I want to program my brain to seek out and notice possibilities that move me towards my goal.  In nlp terms it is a wellformed outcome.  

First things First

Scales ....... I amused my partner this morning changing my electronic scales from stones to kilos. After all those years of dieting pounds and stones are way to loaded for me.  According to google my aim is now to lose 12.7005864 kilograms.  Lets round that down to 12 kg.  OK that sounds better than 28lb, better already.  So I am going from 67kg to 55kg. A size 14  to a size 10 for me.  Great.

Welcome to my blog

Hi,

Everyone welcome to my new weight-loss blog.  This is the story of my personal journey as I apply the lightning process as I lose weight and increase my level of fitness.  My aim is to lose 2 stone, and also to increase my level of fitness, and increase the healthy food in my diet.  I plan to increase my level of healthy low cal foods, and decrease the level of processed foods, fats and sugar.

I have already used the lightning process to resolve 14 years of M.E. and anxiety and depression. I have already seen changes in my eating as I have worked on these issues. I live with my partner and my 3 step children, 10, 13 and 14. I work as an advanced lightning process practitioner in Yorkshire, and have taken around 300 people through the process.

Best Wishes
Jenny