Changing your lifestyle – losing weight, stopping smoking -  can be extremely demanding.

Many of us struggle with some issue for years or even decades, so all new strategies that can improve our chances of success are certainly welcome.

 *******

 Recent research has revealed many strategies that may drastically  you your chances of success. I discovered one of them when I was reading Succeed, a book recently published by a psychologist Heidi Grant Halvorson. I have been reading Succeed on and off for over a  month and have already put some of her suggestions into action – with good results.

You probably already know that if you’re not able to put your plans into action, all your plans for changing your lifestyle come to naught. How many times have you sworn to become a regular exerciser starting on Monday, only to realize on Sunday that you haven’t exercised only once? [Read more...]

Best Wishes,

sensible diet fail

Haha. I just had an *interesting* experience with a “sensible diet”. Or perhaps a more fitting expression would be “experimenting with disciplined eating”.

 *******

Here’s some background.

I wanted to know how my attempt at intuitive eating has affected my weight, so I weighed myself a couple of weeks ago. I discovered I weigh 156 lbs, which is basically the same as five  months ago when I weighed 154 lbs.

I think that’s actually a good result, because I definitely ate all kinds of fattening foods in the beginning. Then in October and November I had a difficult time with all the stress and recurring migraine attacks, so I wasn’t very focused on healthy eating.  I could’ve done much worse.

*******

Nevertheless, the problem was that I was/am really itching to start losing weight, so I decided to start eating in a more disciplined way. So I started tracking my foods with the help of a Finnish service.

Below are a couple of example shots from the service. Te text is in Finnish but you probably get the gist even without  translation. The green balls in the middle monitor the quality of the diet: the amount of veggies, the proportion/amount of fats and protein in the diet, treats (i.e. empty calories) and the amount of fiber in the diet etc. [Read more...]

Best Wishes,

Impotent rage

I had a little tete-a-tete with emotional eating last Wednesday.

And I think it also happens to be a good example of modern stress reaction and my (almost) successful way of responding to it. :-)

*******

In the beginning of last week, I had to write three applications for three different authorities at the same time.  In addition to filling in 3 forms and writing several accounts to clarify my situation, I had to hunt for more than 20 different documents to add to those applications. Because I haven’t been filing my papers too well lately, my task proved to be much more difficult than I expected.

I had thought I would get everything done by Wednesday noon, but that time came and went and my brain was slowly but surely getting unglued. At some point, I sat on the floor with stacks of papers surrounding me from every angle, seething from rage. [Read more...]

Best Wishes,