Are you feeling bleh?
How can you even begin to lose weight when you feel so demotivated and sluggish?
It’s a bit of a catch 22; you want to lose weight, but you just haven’t got the energy! You start the day with all the best intensions but by 2 o’clock you’re reaching for the chocolate.
And you think exercise is the answer, you’ve even joined a gym…. but by the time it comes to put your trainers on you’ve concocted hundreds of excuses not to go!
By Sunday you feel a complete failure…but next week will be different…and round we go!
You are desperate to lose weight, you know it will make you feel better, but you feel so damn awful you can’t lose weight!
There’s a vital step to consider before you tackle weight loss.
We need to break the cycle – start cranking the downward spiral up!
If you start to feel better in yourself, you’ll want to look after yourself. As your energy returns your mindset will shift and you’ll have more control over the choices you make – both with eating and lifestyle habits. Hell, you might even want to do some exercise!
Rather than jumping head long into some huge restrictive regime, that will last about 12 hours – lets reframe things, take a step back to take a step forward!
So what can you do to project yourself forward.
Things to consider to improve your chances of losing weight.
Here are two things to focus on to improve your chances of losing weight successful.
Firstly, know that sugar is not your friend!
It really is ironic that we turn to sugar, in the form of chocolate, cake, biscuits, for energy and a pick me up.
It actually does the complete opposite of picking you up, it brings you crashing down….and sends you out looking for more sugar!
The effects of sugar on the body are far reaching. Really the only good thing about sugar is the taste!
Here’s some of the negatives –
Increase your chances of many diseases (including heart disease)
Bad for the skin and accelerates the aging process (now that’s depressing!)
Increase your risk of Type 2 diabetes…which is very unpleasant!
Increase risk of cancer (there’s a reason cancer is such a killer in the developed world – they don’t print that on the pretty purple chocolate packaging!)
Can cause depression, it will certainly suppress your mood (and you thought it made you happy!)
Sugar is a complete energy sapper. Despite us seeing it as a ‘pick me up’ it does the complete opposite. Our blood sugar levels are all over the place, causing mood swings, apathy and tiredness.
On top of that it increases our risk of diseases (heart disease in particular) and cancer, it’s bad for the skin and accelerates the aging process and can cause depression! It’s even linked to an increase in dementia.
Twix anyone? 😆
For the next few weeks – if the only change you make it to reduce your sugar intake, trust me, you’ll be able to take on the world!
Top tip – switch out the processed sugar for fruit or protein (and not one of those protein bars…they’re full of sugar!)
You don’t even have to cut it out – just start reducing it, I think you’ll soon notice you have a spring in your step and little niggles and aliments suddenly improve!
Check out food labels for the sugar content – they can make interesting reading!
Second thing to consider is your sleep routine.
If you are not getting enough good sleep, you can forget about losing weight!
What time you go to bed, how relaxed you are when you go to bed, how restful is your sleep…all things to consider.
Now I don’t know anyone who jumps out of bed and shouts ‘morning world’, but it shouldn’t be a huge effort to get your head off the pillow.
Small changes can go a long way. Getting to bed just 30 minutes earlier, changing your routine before you go to bed (ie don’t look at the screen right up to the time your head hits the pillow), listen to something calming, don’t eat an hour, 2 is better, before you go to bed. And of course, alcohol and caffeine effect our sleep….. There are lots of things you can try.
If you’re really worried about your sleep, you should go and see the doctor, there are things to rule out such as sleep apnoea.
Taking the emphasis off ‘dieting’ and working on improving your mood and energy levels is the place to start. It won’t be long before you feel in a much better place to start tackling eating habits and you’ll no doubt find you actually want to move more too!
It doesn’t have to be difficult! For anyone who’d like some more help with this – I’m here!
Let’s have a chat – book here for a virtual cuppa. I’ll put the kettle on!
