Ah yes and so it begins- Christmas is coming and in November it is now almost everywhere we turn. Christmas the time of festive cheer right? However it also is a time that puts the fear into women especially as the festive party season looms.
Year in, year out it happens the 'drop a dress size', the festive slim down before the festive overeat and bulk up. It is bizarre, we have just gotten over the 'get into your bikini' summer haze of magazine and on line articles, but after a slight recess and we are straight back into the fold of the radical diet that will of course change our lives- giving a slimmer waist, toned thighs and of course promising that this Christmas will obviously be the best yet!
This quest for body perfection is draining, never ending and the script never really changes bar the introduction of a new diet every couple of months that falsely leads us to believe all our body problems will be solved and naturally smaller thighs!
So here is a thought, yes Christmas is coming and so is the New Year- which in turn brings an entire set of goals and resolutions for many, so why not start the change today and get ahead of the pack and yourself. Time is the main component in achieving goals, so by beginning now you will already be so far ahead of the you that would likely start on January 1st.
I hate hearing people talking about a new diet or what they are doing in drastic fashion to lose the excess weights from their bodies. Diets don't work, every time one is started there is a 75% failure rate- so why join this statistic. Why not start a change in yourself that becomes you and becomes a lifestyle choice. Starting slowly and easing in is the key to success. When people switch from eating processed carbs, fizzy drinks and an abundance of coffee and tea to clear soups, salads and very limited sugar- you can only but crash and burn.
Making daily alterations to your food intake will become key to your success and by putting these little changes into action you will see a positive switch in your relationship with food and how it makes you and your body feel.
By switching to spelt products or gluten free (depending on how you digest gluten and wheat) adding in greens to every meal, a homemade vegetable juice, preparing your own food, educating yourself on how to make your favourite dishes more healthy- have more nutritional value and in fact tastier- can all lead to a prolonged and sustained weight loss and a more balanced attitude to food and nutrition.
There will always be the urge to believe in the hype and also believe in the notion that you can in fact survive on water and lettuce until you fit into that dress! Of course not factoring in the post dress melt down and gaining of an additional 3-5 pounds as your body tries to get back to eating normally after the drastic lack of food over maybe 2 weeks!
So my advice is simple- look at what and how much you are eating? Record how your body is after eating certain foods and stay away if it's not a good feeling. Set your short term goals (the dress) and long term goals (how you want to look and feel in 2015) and be accountable to yourself (Invest in a notebook) To be successful at losing and then maintaining your weight, the formula is a combination between good nutrition (think food without the need for a label) and a mixture of weight training, body resistance and interval training.