New Year Resolutions - Made to be broken?

As a new year approaches our thoughts turn to resolutions - often with dread. There are things about ourselves we don't like and we beat ourselves up over them. We remember so well the promises we made to ourselves in the past; repeatedly breaking the same promises of losing weight, getting fitter and healthier, successful and wealthier.

It's clearly a sign of madness to repeat the same action and expect a different outcome.

Here's my suggestion to you -

Stop using new year resolutions as a way to punish yourself and choose reward yourself instead.

Choose ONE thing and do it well.

Do something NEW.

Here's a list of 'P' words to help you along.

PERSONAL - your resolution should be self motivated, not something you are doing for or because of someone else. (Wii fit thinks I should lose a stone, I think my weight is OK, not perfect but OK!). Likewise, your motivation needs to be your personal satisfaction in keeping to your resolution, not praise or recognition from others.

PUBLIC - tell your friends, your colleagues, your family. Remind yourself. Write your resolution down and stick up where you will see it every day - by your computer, next to your bed, on the fridge, opposite the toilet! Add it to your facebook profile.

POSITIVE - use positive language like my target weight is x stones (not' I want to lose weight'), I will eat fruit for pudding (not 'I won't eat biscuits for pudding').

POSITIVE - (positivity is very important) Choose something that you know will make a positive impact on your life, even in a small way. Teach yourself how fulfilling your resolution is a good thing, not a grudge.

SPECIFIC - (OK, so that one starts with 'S', you do need to be flexible) If you want to become fitter, how fit? How will you know you have reached your goal? If you say you want to earn more money, that is easily achieved by doing one car boot sale. You will let yourself off the hook if your resolution is vague and you can fob yourself off.

PERSPECTIVE - try it on for size, is it realistic and achievable, or are you asking too much? Visualise yourself as you move towards your goal and really see what it will be like to get there, how it will feel, how good you will feel. Does it sound good?

PLANNING - How, where, when and what are you SPECIFICALLY going to to make this happen? Include in your planning your first step and the last step.

PIT STOP - give yourself some stepping stones; a series of small steps is so much easier, and possible, than one huge leap.

PRAISE - Recognise everything you do that gets you closer to your goal. You can use stepping stones to mark your progress and have rewards along the way. (Keep them in proportion - a trip to the cinema when you've done 20 minutes of study is so wrong!)

PERFECTION - expect to 'go off piste' sometimes, go back to your PLAN! Manage your expectations and remember your PLAN and your PIT STOPS.

What will happen if you succeed?

What will happen if you don't?

How not to eat cake - new course

Following the successful weight and inch loss achieved in the Autumn course we are running the workshops again,
this time in longer sessions over two Saturday mornings
and in a new venue - use the link below for more details!

Doctors Use Acupressure Technique Instead of Drugs to Combat Emotional Eating

Press Release from EFT World Centre in San Francisco, CA (PRWEB)

--Why do people eat when they are not hungry?
According to the foundational theory of Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), people overeat to tranquilize unresolved negative emotions and traumas. Recent research has established that obese people overeat because their food cravings are controlled by the same part of the brain that control drug cravings in addicts. This brain circuitry located in the hippocampus is also the part of the brain that is involved with emotion.Researchers are hopeful that these findings will point to new treatments for obesity and they acknowledge that dealing with emotions may be necessary. Meanwhile, people are already conquering food cravings and addictions by addressing their unresolved emotional issues with EFT– and they have been doing so for more than a decade. EFT involves fingertip tapping on select acupressure points while focusing on the craving in question. EFT claims an 80% success rate in calming the emotions that trigger food cravings.
Gary Craig, the Stanford-trained engineer who developed EFT, has noticed a marked increase in the number of research studies that link negative emotions to physical issues. “But it is not enough to just make that link,” says Craig. “People also need reliable, inexpensive and safe treatment options that will help them address negative emotions once and for all, thereby breaking the link to physical illness. For the last decade EFT has given people an effective, drug-free healing option with an 80 percent success rate.”Physician, Dr. Eric Robins says, "Some day the medical profession will wake up and realize that unresolved emotional issues are the main cause of 85% of all illnesses. When they do, EFT will be one of their primary healing tools ... as it is for me."In other medical news, pharmaceutical giant, Merck abandoned their anti-obesity drug MK-0577 when it failed to produce significant weight loss results in human clinical trials. Meanwhile, a French pharmaceutical company is awaiting US FDA approval for their “magic bullet for obesity” drug, rimonabant.In one year, this drug, plus a low calorie diet resulted in an average weight loss of less than 11 pounds in obese drug trial participants. Only those on a high dose of the drug had noteworthy weight loss and the accompanying side effects included nausea, diarrhea, headache, dizziness, joint pain as well as psychiatric and nervous system disorders.In contrast, when people use EFT for their food addictions, there are no drugs involved and even willpower is unnecessary if users connect with and resolve their emotional reasons for turning to unhealthy foods. In 80% of the cases immediate food cravings subside in moments. Craig acknowledges, “While this is not yet mainstream thinking, hundreds of doctors, psychiatrists and psychotherapists are using EFT to help their patients change their relationships with food.”Craig reports, “I see repeatedly that emotional issues like fear, anger, boredom, shame, and resentment are the very centerpiece of someone’s weight gain. But their emotional issues have remained unresolved despite willpower and conventional therapies. This is because the emotional issues have disrupted their energy meridian system (or Chi in Chinese Medicine). Until the energy system is balanced, the emotional eating will continue.”Over 400,000 people have downloaded Craig’s free training manual and another 10,000 download it each month, making it one of the fastest-growing healing modalities in the world. Known as The EFT Manual, it has been translated by volunteer practitioners into nine languages. The EFT website is the fourth most actively visited natural health site in the world.