What is the first thing you think of when you want to start losing weight? Stop eating, need to run a marathon every day (as well as every class going at the gym), feel hungry, can’t go out, never eating anything nice ever again , feeling down right miserable and to top it off you put on 2lbs!!!! Sound familiar? What if I told you that none of these things are any good for losing weight, in fact they are so bad for your health and wellbeing and don’t even work. Especially for the long term. So, wouldn’t you want to have a solution where your not on a “diet”, you don’t have to restrict all the foods you eat, you don’t need to be slogging it at the gym every day and you will actually be happy while you do it. Sound Good? Lets have a look at these 5 principles and get you feeling and looking great from today! 1) Mindset All this going to be for nothing if you can’t get your mind on board! For some, this will be as easy as making the decision and sticking to it, for others this can be a bit challenging as our mind has a terrible way of sabotaging efforts before you have even begun. So how do we stop the self-destruction before it begins? First of all give yourself a break! This does not have to be a perfect process and you do not have to be perfect doing it to get great results. Not all the time anyway I try to work on the 80/20 rule. 80% of the time I am good while 20% of the time there’s room for the treats. Wine, chocolate, puddings, whatever it is you enjoy don’t stop having them, just not so much. On your good days eat plenty of protein and vegetables to keep you fuller for longer. The key to this type of mindset is balance. For example, if you ate a 3-course meal for lunch, chances are at tea time, your not really hungry, but you are conditioned to eat again at a certain time so you do it without thinking. There are other ways to work this rule but to get you started and really start thinking about how you eat, this is a great place to start. 2) Know yourself Once you have started thinking and working with your food habits you should start to feel yourself changing. How do you feel? I’m not talking about your life status but more how does your body feel? Our mind and body work like a supercomputer, always checking what’s going on and then sending feedback to us in various forms for us to deal with. Sometimes, especially if we are overeating for example, a lot of the signals get lost and so we don’t always sense what our bodies are trying to tell us. Sugar and alcohol (to name a couple) have such an impact on our bodies that they overpower a lot of these sensors so we miss certain indicators and by the time we get to them, it can be too late. Our bodies are amazing at telling us what we need to know if we know how to listen. Do you know what it really feels like to be hungry? Is that feeling you are getting to go and eat more food a real hunger or is it because your hunger receptors are being clouded and you are in fact thirsty or your mind is craving something so its triggered a chemical response in your brain. How often do you check in with yourself? Act like your own best friend always wanting the best for you and then acting on it accordingly. 3) Posture Probably one of the easiest steps to follow but it’s your mindset that is going to keep you going with it. How do you stand? How do you sit? How do you present yourself to the world? Do you slouch in the shoulders, keep looking at the floor when you walk, Sit with a rounded back at home, in the car, at home? All these body positions can be a result of just not feeling good or confident about yourself unless they are health related. If you are carrying more weight, then you are more likely to have bad posture as gravity is always acting on our bodies pulling them towards the earth. This then leads to aches pains and discomfort throughout the body. Stand in front of a mirror and look at how you are standing. Then lift the top of your head towards the ceiling, draw the shoulders back, drop the bottom of the ribs down, straighten up through your legs and how do you feel? Then try and adopt the feeling of lifting the top of your head to the ceiling while your sitting, walking and any time you think about it and you will start feeling more confident and sure of yourself. 4) Be prepared to accept change. If you really want to change how you look and feel you have to accept that your life will NEVER be the same again. Which, if your doing this for health, is a fantastic thing. There is no time limit on this, this is your new life and everything will fall into place. You are going to evolve and blossom into an even greater version of yourself. Be curious, try new things, get out of that comfort zone you have been hiding in. There’s nothing there for you anymore. You need to look forwards to the new you who you are going to be and by adopting and keeping these principles, it is all possible. What you are going to find is far more valuable than what you will lose. You will gain a sense of strength and achievement you never knew before; your mind will be clearer your life more positive all for not having such a burden of failing on another useless diet. You must believe you can succeed and you will! You will breath better, sleep better, move better, laugh harder and you and your body will work as one happy unit, together and for the rest of your life. 5) Get moving To get moving It’s not all about the gym. We are blessed with a very underrated (in my opinion) form of exercise and that is walking. The benefits of walking are so many that it is the best place to start when wanting to get fit and lose weight. Not only are you getting your body moving but you are also getting out in nature , in the fresh air and that also comes with a multitude of health benefits for your state of mind too. Start by walking around where you live. Every day. Breath in the fresh air and take notice of all the beautiful little walks you will start to find so close to your home. Say hi to neighbors and its not just about fair weather. It’s beautiful walking around in the rain. As they say, “There’s no such thing as bad weather, just bad choice of clothing”. Get out as often as you can, Get the whole family out. You can all benefit from the time spent outdoors, laughing and having fun together rather than just sat in front of the tv! It will start to instill some good habits into your children’s minds too With all the information that has been gathered from the Covid-19 pandemic, it has been highlighted that your health plays a massive part in how your body deals with illness. Its not just covid either. There are many illnesses that would greatly improve when you start to look at how you are eating moving and looking after your mental health. If you incorporate these 5 principles into your life, even just a bit, you will be surprised at the difference it is going to make to your weight, your health, your families health. Why not get started today. Who knows what little gem of a walk and a whole new life is out there waiting for you to explore.