Well, the bottom line is that eating 6 meals a day does not lead to more weight loss than eating 3 meals a day.

While some studies have shown that having a higher meal frequency reduces food intake because you are reportedly less hungry, and that this in turn encourages fat loss, other studies have not been able to confirm this relationship. It appears that fat loss is only higher in situations where ‘dieters’ are also exercising more restraint over what they eat, and are also doing more exercise.

A study released this year by the British Journal of Nutrition, suggested that eating small frequent meals did not impact on appetite factors either.

So, what’s the moral of this little story.

a) eat the meal frequency that suits you and your lifestyle, whether it be 3, 4, 5 or 6 meals. For example, many people eat breakfast, lunch and dinner and a snack at around 3-4pm. As long as you are not going over your required energy intake by eating the snack, the afternoon snack may ultimately help you manage your hunger and prevent you from “pigging out” at your next main meal

b) if you have diabetes type I or II small regular meals are recommended to optimize blood sugar and insulin management

c) maintain your eating routines from day to day because your body and your lifestyle will adjust to it.

d) always eat breakfast

e) don’t eat food because it is there, or because someone offers it. Unless you are hungry say no to unscheduled food opportunities

f) avoid tiredness because the brain misconstrues tiredness as low energy levels and will stimulate a sensation of hunger causing you to eat more when you are tired. People tend to have less self-discipline when they are tired and eat more high sugar, high energy foods or “junk food” when they are feeling tired and fatigued. Eating non-nutritious foods when tired only makes your body feel more tired because it is not getting the nutrients it needs to run optimally. This sets up a cycle of poor eating habits and food cravings

g) regardless of the meal frequency you choose, you will need to exercise restraint over your food choices and to maintain a reasonable activity level, preferably at least 60 minutes of moderate activity a day.

Never forget, weight loss at its most basic is a maths equation. Less in, more out – eat less, exercise more.

Reference: Cameron, J. D., Cyr, M-J, & Doucet, E. (2010). Increased meal frequency does not promote greater weight loss in subjects who were prescribed an 8-week equi-energetic energy-restricted diet. British Journal of Nutrition, 103, 1098 – 1101.

Related posts:

1. A Bit of Motivation from Buddha for Those Who Have Lost Their Weight Loss Mojo or Think Losing Weight is Just Too Hard
2. Is Cutting Calories Sufficient for Weight Loss?
3. Supplementation after Bariatric/Weight Loss Surgery – lapbands, gastric sleeves etc

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A study was reported in the Sydney Morning Herald suggesting that cutting our calories in order to lose weight would only result in an automatic reduction in our exercise output, meaning that we would maintain weight. And, why did they draw that conclusion? Because that’s what happened in an experiment with 18 female rhesus monkeys!

Basically, we shouldn’t believe everything we read. Because it happens to monkeys does not mean it will happen to us. Monkeys are primates, we are humans. And, before telling humans something completely unhelpful like ‘cutting calories doesn’t result in weight loss’ they should replicate the study on humans before releasing it in the media. Better still, they should read the research literature on humans, which unequivocally proves that cutting calories DOES result in weight loss.

Like it or lump it, weight loss is a maths equation, albeit a very complex one because it is moderated by our minds, and our minds are not always rational. We eat when we are not hungry and don’t stop eating when we are full. We get fat as a result, and even though we don’t like the extra fat, we don’t change our behaviour.

Unlike humans, animals in the wild don’t gain excessive weight and become overweight and obese. When they kill their prey and sit down to dine on the spoils they stop eating when they are full and wander away. They maintain a homeostatic weight, or a perfect weight for their frame. No wonder the monkeys in the experiment automatically reduced their activity output when their calorie intake was dropped. That is what they are designed to do, to maintain weight homeostasis.

Humans unfortunately have the facility to take appetite and weight control into their own hands and make conscious decisions about how much they will eat and exercise. More unfortunately, most humans don’t always make the best food and exercise decisions and put on more weight than they want.

So, what’s the moral of this story:

a) don’t read everything you read

b) manage your mind to get the body and life you want

Photo credit:  iStockphoto

Related posts:

1. A Bit of Motivation from Buddha for Those Who Have Lost Their Weight Loss Mojo or Think Losing Weight is Just Too Hard
2. How Stress & Over-exercise Can Prevent Weight-Loss
3. Does eating six small meals a day produce more weight loss than eating three meals a day?

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Unfortunately the factors spawning the obesogenic environment are not only complex, they are here to stay and do not support our waist lines. They include:

· a readily available and expanded food supply

· technological and economic advancements which reduce energy expenditure such as cheap transport and outsourcing of tasks like gardening and cleaning

· food advertising

· a decline in physical activity

· increased sedentary behaviour such as TV viewing and computer games

· time constraints and dependence on convenience foods with short preparation times

· having easier access to food with the emergence of a supermarket society and the explosion of fast food outlets

· increased access to and consumption of alcohol

· a socio-cultural food focus as evidenced by the relationship between food and special occasions such as Easter and Christmas, as well the increasing numbers and variety of cooking shows on television and the emphasis we place on the positive relationship between food and socialising.

What makes economic and technological progress worse is the associated impact of living in societies saturated with a persuasive and invasive mass media supported by marketing genius that seduces even the most hard-nosed individual to take the path of instant gratification. We want what we want (and, don’t necessarily need) and we want it now, and are prepared to pay for it later, if at all.

In our obesogenic world, eating has become a leisure pursuit and a sedative. Food is no longer thought of as a substance for sustenance and survival, it has been bestowed a social, psychological and physiological significance that has become a major barrier to treating obesity.

Once we could say that weight loss was a simple maths equation of eating less and exercising more, but with the evolution of this more complex and technological society and the birthing of an obesogenic environment our consumption extends not just to food but to the media and marketing messages, our thoughts, beliefs and emotions, the substances we consume and even the chemicals and energies we are exposed to.

In acknowledgement of the obesogenic environment we now marinate in, some researchers refer to obesity as ‘a disorder of convenience’ and suggest that unless interventions are designed around the environmental issues impacting on individuals presenting for weight treatment, interventions are likely to be unsuccessful. However, the power of the mind in managing obesity should never be overlooked as effectively nothing is consumed by the body without the mind’s permission and it is the mind that determines if someone moves or exercises their body, and whether they comply with or give up on healthy eating plans. Therefore, unless we also address the vagaries of a mind that has maladapted to the obesogenic environment by using food for purposes such as managing emotions like stress and depression, to relieve boredom, or as a reward, then we are not addressing some of the major obstacles to weight management.

Weight loss is no longer simple. We live in an obesogenic environment that is here to stay. We must learn to adapt to the complex obesogenic world we live in if we wish to optimise our health and quality of life.

Related posts:

1. Why did the world get fat
2. Life in the Fast Lane- Fast Food, Fast Medicine, Fast Surgery
3. Preventing Obesity in Children (& adults)

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And, if you were not aware, the medical conditions caused by obesity are placing a significant strain on peoples’ health and health systems. Doctors are overloaded and many are burning out, often before they leave medical school!  Their patients are complaining about the limited time the doctor spends with them, and the doctor’s seeming lack of interest and engagement with them. Very few of us have Family Doctors anymore and instead attend the big medical centres, which have surfaced. The high turnover of medical staff in these medical centres means we rarely see the same doctor twice. Given these changes, it was hardly a surprise when the term ‘fast medicine’ emerged in the media.

Now, while some of us may feel like we are just pieces of product in some medical processing plant when we visit the doctor, others of us have become immune to the lack of interpersonal warmth and brevity of our encounters with doctors because it matches our ‘fast’, time pressured lives – we don’t want to spend too long with them either because we live in our own time famine!

Unfortunately, ‘fast medicine’ doesn’t work for weight management. In a three minute, ‘fast medicine’ consultation the doctor’s prescription for weight loss is likely to be, “You need to lose weight”, or “You need to exercise”. They don’t have time to find out what caused your weight gain, or to provide strategies on how to lose weight, and many don’t have the training. The research literature has clearly identified that many doctors agree that time constraints in consultations and lack of training in the weight management area impact on their ability to address this important health issue.

Anyway, enter ‘fast surgery’. While the criteria for bariatric surgery are that you have a BMI>40, or a BMI>35-39.9 with a serious medical condition related to obesity, and have attempted previous weight loss using diet, exercise or medication, surgery is sometimes being recommended without really ensuring that the patient has genuinely attempted weight loss previously. We have become an instant gratification society. We want everything, and we want it now, and are prepared to pay for it later. Surgery to some offers an easy and quick solution. However, although research confirms the success of bariatric surgery in achieving more substantial and permanent weight loss outcomes than conventional forms of treatment incorporating diet and exercise, it is simply not realistic to depend solely on surgical or, even pharmacological treatments, to manage ‘globesity’.

We live in an obesogenic environment and must learn to adapt to it. Diet, exercise and behaviour modification retain their position as the most accepted approaches for weight management and offer the opportunity for multiple positive health outcomes such as improved nutritional status through to a level of mental and physical fitness that a ‘fast surgery’ approach does not promote.

So, enter the ‘slow movement’. Obviously, the ‘slow movement’ has evolved in reaction to the ‘fast movement’ – fast food, fast medicine, fast surgery! The ‘slow movement’ is about making a connection, about freeing us from our ‘nearly pathological’ need for instant gratification and living a life as pawns in a totally man-made time famine. Fast does not free us. We could all slow down and take time to smell the roses. Effective weight loss and lifestyle changes are not fast. They are best taken one day at a time, and don’t forget you have the rest of your life to do it.

Related posts:

1. Carolyn Myss’s Energy Medicine Approach to Changing Attitudes & Behaviour
2. Our Obesogenic World
3. The true meaning of Christmas is lost in an ocean of marketing mania, purchasing pillages and food fests

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The bad news is out and hard to ignore. Evidence is growing that links obesity and executive dysfunction in the brain and this refers not just to reduced mental functioning but to scary conditions that none of us want to end our dying days with such as Alzheimer’s dementia ^[1].

So, what is executive functioning and why do we need it? Well, with a name like ‘executive’ it clearly tells you that it is that part of the mind that takes charge of most things. In more scientific terms, executive functioning refers to your mental abilities that control and regulate other abilities and behaviors such as the ability to organize thoughts and activities, manage time, prioritize tasks, make decisions and work towards goals. In a nutshell our executive functioning enables us to think and act normally!

Teachers in schools often talk about the executive functioning of children in relation to their learning abilities. If you are worried about your child’s executive functioning, or your own for that matter, then I suggest you view the following link to get a brief overview on symptoms relating to executive function (you may have to copy and paste it into your url). See your doctor if you are at all concerned.

http://www.schoolbehavior.com/conditions_edfoverview2.htm

Now the good news is if you are carrying a few extra kilos of fat, it appears you will be able to delay the decline of mental functioning caused by excessive levels of fat tissue and even improve current mental functioning if you comply with the following:

· Manage blood pressure & actively avoid weight gain as you age. Why? Some research indicates that controlling mid-life high blood pressure and abdominal obesity may be strategies to reduce mental decline with age ^[2].

· Exercise and increase physical activity in general. Research^[3] states that regular voluntary physical exercise and exercise training can favorably influence brain plasticity (ie the ability for the brain to change in a positive way) and the decline in mental functioning with aging and neurological disorders like Alzheimer’s dementia.

· Ensure an adequate intake of Omega-3 Fatty Acid. Research ^[4] says that diets rich in omega-3 fatty acids can lower the risk of chronic disease.

o Rich sources of omega-3 fatty acids include: salmon, flax seeds and walnuts

o Other sources include soy beans, tofu, virgin olive oil, winter squash, halibut, scallops, prawns and to a lesser extent tuna & kidney & navy beans

NOTE: Frying damages the omega-3s so do not fry your fish or the olive oil. Use the oil in dressings instead.

1. ^[1] 1. Gunstad, J., Paul, R.H., Cohen, R. A., Tate, D. F., Spitznagel, M. B., & Gordon, E. (2007). Elevated body mass index is associated with executive dysfunction in otherwise healthy adults. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 48(1), 57-61 ↩
2. ^[2] 2. Wolf, P. A., Beiser, A., Elias, Merrill, F., Au, R., Ramachandran, S., & Seshadri, S. (2007) Current Alzheimer Research, 4 (2), 111-116 ↩
3. ^[3] 3. Dishman, R. K., Berthoud, H-R., Booth, F. W., Cotman, C. W. Edgerton, V. R., Fleshner, M. R., Gandevia, S.C. et al. (2006). Neurobiology of exercise. Obesity, 14, 345-356. ↩
4. ^[4] 4. Nutrition & Food Science; September 2007, Vol. 37 Issue: Number 5 p306-312, 7p. ↩

Related posts:

1. Preventing Obesity in Children (& adults)

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The balloon partially fills the stomach giving a feeling of fullness which makes it easier for people who have undergone the procedure to adhere to a reduced energy intake. However, it is not a foregone conclusion that you will automatically lose weight. For optimum weight loss outcomes the procedure needs to be combined with appropriate dietary, behavioural and exercise programs.

The procedure is marketed as a strategy to get you on the road to weight loss, NOT as a long term solution. The balloon is not permanent. Generally it is removed after six months because the acid environment of the stomach breaks the material of the balloon down and can cause it to deflate. Apparently blue dye is placed in the balloon so if it breaks down you soon know about it because your urine turns blue!! There have been a few cases where the balloon did deflate and became lodged in the bowel requiring surgical removal.

The balloon is usually removed around 6 months. The balloon is pulled back out through the mouth.

The balloon is marketed as an option for obese people who are more than 40% overweight and who have been unable to lose weight despite many serious attempts to do so. Because there is no surgical risk it can be considered for people with BMI’s greater than 50 who are a surgical risk until they lose enough weight to be considered fit for surgery. Because it is non-invasive and reversible it is also an option for overweight and obese people in the lower weight ranges.

The downside of the procedure appears to be nausea or vomiting in the first few days. And, as mentioned above, if the balloon does happen to deflate it can pass into the bowel and out. However, as already noted there have been cases where the balloon has had to be surgically removed from the bowel.

The balloon is not a panacea or a magic wand. It is possible that you will not lose weight if you do not adhere to a dietary regime despite websites saying you could lose between 10 and 25kgs. When the balloon is removed you will only maintain any weight loss you have achieved whilst the balloon is inserted if you adhere to the appropriate nutritional, psychological and exercise advice post-surgical removal. So, unless you address the behaviours, belief systems and habits that caused you to gain weight in the first place you will likely regain all the weight you lost as a result of having the gastric balloon and should save your money!

Surgical procedures or procedures such as the gastric balloon should not be taken as an easy way out. They are designed for people who have made genuine attempts at weight loss and who are willing to address their health issues from a nutritional, psychological and physical/exercise vantage point.

Related posts:

1. Supplementation after Bariatric/Weight Loss Surgery – lapbands, gastric sleeves etc
2. Gastric Sleeve Surgery – pros, cons, guidelines
3. Gastric Sleeve Surgery – a 2009 Case Study

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Prevention of weight gain must start with children commencing at birth. Guidelines put forward by Davis, et al  ((Davis MM, Gance-Cleveland B, Hassink S, Johnson R, Paradis G, Resnicow G. Recommendations for prevention of childhood obesity. Pediatrics.2007; 120(suppl 4) :228 –252.)), could well apply to adults, so if you are reading this blog, you can apply it to yourself as much as your children.

Davis et al (2007)  ((refer to note 1)) put forward the following extra guidelines based on research evidence:

1. limit consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (consistent evidence). See the DietPsyche blog on the link between softdrink and mental health issues for further information on how bad soft drink is for your health.

2. encourage recommended serve sizes for fruit and vegetables which in the USA and Australia is 9 serves per day, normally 2 fruit and 5 vegetables (mixed evidence)

3. after 2 years of age limit television and other screen time to a maximum of 2 hours daily combined daily, and remove screens of all types from children’s rooms (consistent evidence). Prior to 2 years, do not encourage television.

4. eat breakfast daily (consistent evidence)

5. limit eating out at restaurants, particularly those serving large portions and particularly fast food facilities (consistent evidence).

6. eat with the family (consistent evidence), or others. Family meals have been shown to be of a higher nutrient quality, have psychosocial benefits and are associated with lower obesity prevalence.

7. limit portion sizes (consistent evidence)

Available data also suggests the following guidelines ((Barlow, S. E. (2007. Expert committee recommendatiosn regarding the prevention, assessment, and treatment of child and adolescent overweight and obesity: Summary and Report. Pediatrics, 120, S164 – S192. DOI:10.1542/2329C)):

1. eat a diet rich in calcium

2. eat a diet high in fibre

3. eat a diet balanced in the macronutrients, protein, fat and carbohydrate

4. encourage breastfeeding

5. promote moderate to vigrorous physical activity for at least 60 minutes daily

6. limit consumption of energy dense foods

Other possible prevention strategies

1. have your doctor plot your child’s BMI (body mass index) at visits so he can monitor your child’s weight and alert you to any problems

2. use numerical acronyms like 9210 to encourage your children to comply with healthy behaviours: 9 (9 serves of fruit and vegetables daily), 2 (2hrs only in front of a screen per day), 1 (hour of exercise daily), 0 (no sweet beverages)

3. watch your own weight, remember you are a role model, so role model healthy eating and exercise behaviours to your children

4. only keep healthy foods at home – out of sight, out of mind!

Please share any other strategies you may have.

Related posts:

1. Obesity is Associated with Brain Dysfunction- Another Good Reason to Lose Weight
2. The Undeniable Truth About the Cost of Obesity and What you Can Do About It

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• The Secret to Getting the Body and Life You Want (Part 1 of 4)
• The Secret to Getting the Body and Life You Want (Part 2 of 4)

You will have noticed that complying with the activities you need to do to reach your goals is still not easy. Being constantly in sync with your thoughts, actions, words and feelings is downright difficult.

Unfortunately, as humans we instantly think limitation. We become vibrationally resistant to whom we could become. We stay fat, single or in a bad relationship, unhealthy, financially challenged, mediocre or unhappy, and generally accepting of our unsatisfactory lot in life. To change our lives and break free of our self-imposed limitations we need to change our minds and believe in our ability to be who we want to be.

To become powerful manifestors we need to take charge of an important component of our minds, and that is, our emotions. Emotions are the barometer of our vibration. How we are feeling at any point in time indicates if we are in sync with ourselves and our desires or goals, or not. If we are feeling good, we are in line to attracting what we want.

Unfortunately, being human, we give up, we get lazy, and we don’t push ourselves. We like to dream and fantasise but often don’t have the follow-through, persistence or self-discipline to focus on bearing the fruit of our dreams. It is easier to focus on the reality of what is than focusing on the vibrational reality of a desire that has not yet manifested. It is also easier to do nothing, and stay stuck. I saw this clearly in a particular obese subset of the population I worked with. Brutal in their honesty, the most frequent reason they gave for their inability to lose weight was good old simple laziness. While some of this client population succeeded most failed at their weight lost attempts. And, why? They stayed exactly as they said they were, lazy. They just couldn’t really be bothered to lose weight despite their health problems, occupational difficulties and associated issues. They were waiting for a magic pill, something easy that didn’t require effort to get the body and life they wanted. They preferred to suffer right now, than function efficiently in the now so the future would not come crashing down on them with some obesity-related health problem. They blamed their jobs, their living situation, and their genes and stayed trapped in their self-imposed prison.

We spend our lives talking about what is going on right now, but when we do this we create a vibrational reality that is present tense. The ‘manifest your destiny’ experts say that if we are only willing to focus on the reality that is already manifested and happening today, we are focused on old news. This includes the money we have now, the body we have now, and the relationship we do or don’t have now. More often than not, the news we are experiencing today is not what we want our lives to be.

 If we want to create something bigger, better, healthier, we need to “feel it.” Feeling is the road to creation. If you feel the feeling of how you will feel when you have what you want the “Manifest Your Destiny” experts say you will set up the vibration to attract it. Basically you need to be a vibrational match to where you want to go.

So, what further strategies can we fine tune to get the body we want?

First and foremost, you need to work on your attitude, particularly your feeling attitude. To connect into a positive emotion with ease think of a time when you felt absolutely fabulous, full of joy, happiness and enthusiasm. If you have difficulty tuning into a positive emotion focus on the unconditional love of your pet, the beauty of nature, the wonders of the world. We call emotions that generate strong positive feelings touchstone emotions. The more you tune into the energy of these positive touchstone emotions the more you optimise your vibration. Connecting into touchstone emotions helps you to feel good, to feel free, flowing and light, as if you are in sync with all things. It is when you are in this positive frame of mind (thought and feeling) that you set up the vibration to create the life you want.

If you cannot hold a positive vibration or state of mind, keep refocusing on images or memories that are associated with touchstone emotions and you will find that through persistence you will maintain positive feelings for longer periods. Eventually you will learn to stay in a vibrational field that will attract other positive emotions and where solutions emerge, thereby creating the soil from which your goals and dreams will grow. Visit this vibrational field of positive emotion and thought at least daily and practice staying in it for longer and longer periods. You can work your way in, or someone can inspire you in. When you are in this positive feeling state this is where you will experience feelings of flow, ease, freedom and love. In this state you will like yourself more, and hardly surprisingly, attract more. It is a vibrational state of being. Milk it for everything it is worth. The more you think and talk about it, and try to be in it, the more it becomes your state of being.

Once you can generate and hold on to a positive emotional state, you will notice the emergence of thoughts consistent or in sync with that emotion. When you begin to notice these two events you are generating the vibrational energy to create the reality you want. And, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain because it is better to be marinating in a field of positive thought and emotion, than a cesspool of negativity!

Homework

By now you know the drill. Practice holding on to positive emotions 24/7 and doing more of the homework already assigned. Some people find writing a journal of positive thoughts and goals morning and night helps them to stay focused on positive thoughts and emotions. This journal is often referred to as a Gratitude Journal and helps one develop an Attitude of Gratitude. Treat yourself and splash out on a very special book that will cue you into your dreams and wishes.

• The Secret to Getting the Body and Life You Want (Part 1 of 4)
• The Secret to Getting the Body and Life You Want (Part 2 of 4)

Related posts:

1. The Secret to Getting the Body and Life You Want (Part 2 of 4)
2. The Secret to Getting the Body and Life You Want- Part 1 of 4

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Changing behaviour and ways of thinking is not easy, but it is not impossible either.

We have all heard the saying:

“If you keep on doing what you are doing, you will get more of what you’ve got”

Well, nothing could be truer than this sentence when it is applied to weight loss.

We all know what we need to do to get the body we want. We simply don’t lose weight if we don’t exercise our body or exercise self-discipline over our mad monkey minds and the bad eating habits that prevent us from losing weight.

Behaviors become habits when we do them over and over again. Similarly, thoughts become beliefs when we think them over and over again. Habits and beliefs become so well practiced that we relocate them to the automatic part of our minds and allow them to operate without thinking. Unfortunately, many of our habits and beliefs are what sabotage our weight loss attempts.

Think about it.

How many times have you popped some ‘deadly’, high calorie morsel of food into your mouth before you have even thought about it? And, how many times have you looked in the mirror and automatically said to yourself, “I’m too fat?”

It’s not rocket science; it is cold hard reality. What we think and what we do becomes our reality, especially when we do it over and over again. We become fat because we think we are fat. We then cement the belief in that we are fat by doing the things that make us fat, like eating too much and exercising too little.

There is no magic pill to dissolve fat, and bariatric surgery, while it ensures weight loss does not necessarily teach you to change your behaviour or your beliefs, but certainly reduces your ability to eat an optimal food intake for good nutrition (refer to the blog on pros and cons of bariatric surgery).

The good news is, that with a bit of grit and determination you can change your thoughts and behaviors.

Think of a thoughts or behaviours as setting up neural routes in your brain. If you think a thought once, or do a behaviour once, it is only a track and will grow over and be difficult to find if you don’t walk down this path again. However, if you keep thinking the thought (e.g., “I will never lose weight”) or doing the behaviour (e.g., eating a chocolate from the dispensing machine every afternoon at 3pm) then you start to build a road, making it easier to repeat the thought or behaviour because the pathway is easy to find and travel along.

By repeating these unhelpful thoughts or behaviours we build a superhighway of neurones that entrench us in habits and ways of thinking that stop us from getting what we want. Basically, as we think, and as we do, is what we become!

So, how do we undo these beliefs and habits that don’t help us? How do we pull down these superhighways of automatic thoughts and actions?

We STOP travelling these pathways! What we don’t use falls away, it loses power. All bad habits need attention to be maintained.

So, practise resisting the urge to go to the snack bar and buy a chocolate at 3pm. Either learn to get by with a hot beverage or glass of water or bring a healthy alternative such as a piece of fruit.

Change the pattern! You weaken habits when you do something completely different.

Stop, and think before you act. Automatic thoughts and behaviours are just that; they are knee jerk reactions that usually don’t serve you. Make considered choices. We all have options. For example, we have an option to binge or an option to jump on our exercise bikes and watch half an hour of a favourite show. We all know which option our body would prefer.

The longer you practice NOT DOING the habits that don’t assist you in getting the body you want, the less power those habits will have over you.

And just like you repeatedly trod a path of thoughts and behaviours that turned into negative belief systems and bad habits that didn’t serve you, by treading paths of more positive thoughts and behaviours you will be more likely to get you what you want.

Practice makes permanent so make sure it is positive thoughts and behaviours you are practicing.

To get you started on changing the unhelpful beliefs and habits you have that stop you from getting the body and life you want, identify what needs starving, and what thoughts and habits need feeding. It will be different for each one of you.

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The top ten countries, from highest to lowest, in prevalence of obesity between 1980 – 1998 will probably surprise you.

They were:

1. Samoa

2. Kuwait

3. UK

4. New Zealand

5. Mauritius

6. USA

7. Australia

8. Germany

9. Switzerland

10. Netherlands

FACT:  Obesity, particularly morbid obesity (BMI>40) may reduce life spans by up to 9 years.

FACT:  Obesity also significantly increases the risk of diabetes type II, high blood fats and heart disease and high blood pressure, as well as some cancers, to name just a few.

The most shocking possibility however is, that if obesity trends increase at their current rate, children could die before their parents. Childhood obesity since 1998 has accelerated, and continues to accelerate.

Fat is expensive. In the UK it was projected that by 2010 (this year) the annual cost to their economy of the indirect and direct costs of obesity would be a whopping 3.6 billion pounds.

For your own sake, and that of your children, or the children of the planet, model the behaviour you wish to encourage and….

eat, think, speak, listen and do mindfully

master your mind

move more

mindfulness  —  mastery —  movement

Reference:

Wilkinson, J. R., Walrond, L.J., & Summerbell, C. D. (3007). Obesity Reviews, (8, Suppl.1), 23-29.

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