Happy New Year

Firstly can I wish you all a very Happy New Year. I hope everything you hope for this year comes to you and that it's everything you imagined it would be.

I know for pretty much all of you that losing weight is high on your list of wishes for the New Year. Well I've got so much to add and it's all great stuff so please do come back or subscribe so that I can keep you updated to when I add something new.

Today I'm going to go right back to the basics. There's a bit of science but hopefully it won't be too boring. Once you understand this principle everything about why you do what you do (especially around your diet) should make more sense.

Everything we do, walk, sleep, eat, lift right arm, lift left arm, turn head - it's all controlled by our brains. Absolutely everything. Our brains are made up of a massive network of connections that fire electrical messages to carry out those instructions.

Not only does our brain control our body movements, it controls our reactions and responses. Our thoughts and our responses are made up of those same messages going along the same connections.

The connections tend to be different thicknesses. The thick ones are our most popular habits. The ones we've built up over a lifetime. the thin ones are the reactions we don't have so often. As you can imagine the thicker connections have more powerful impulses travelling along them. It's these messages that become our everyday habits. The things we do without seeming to think about them.

Your eating habits are those you've built up over years. They travel along those really thick connections. They go along the freeways that are in your brain. They don't travel down your little alleys. They are virtually automatic responses.

That's why diets are so difficult to stick to over the long term. You're taking on your long term habits.

Now the really good news is you can change the route your thoughts take. The even better news is that the more your thoughts take that new route, the thicker the connection becomes and the old way starts to shrink.

What I'm saying is this. You can change - your mind will let you. You can win this battle and you can get your good habits to a point where they are dominant. your brain can be reprogrammed for success.

That's what we're here to do.

More soon.

Here's to your long term weight loss success!!

It's New Years Eve - Do You Know Where You're Going?

Strange question I know.

A lot of people will be waking up today and will for the first time be thinking about New Year resolutions. Some will take a look at themselves in the mirror and decided they need to go on a diet. That will be the extent of their planning. They'll find a diet and come up with a number of some description about what they want to weigh or how much they want to lose.

I predict they are likely to fail over the longer term. That's quite sad becuase everyone who wants to lose weight for the right reasons should succeed. But they need to know how to succeed and having a plan is vital.

If you've woken up on New Years eve and given a diet some thought, my advice is not to go on the diet straight away if you've not planned your journey out. If you're thinking I've lost the plot, please just hear me out for a moment.

Would you rather start your diet on January 1st, pursue it relentlessly for a month or so and then fall off the wagon at the end? Or would you rather take a slightly slower start, plan exactly where you're going and keep succeeding while those around you are struggling and keep asking you what your secret is?

Now to me, the second one makes more sense.

What I'm suggesting is that you need to know what success looks like to you. You need to have a very clear picture in your head about what success in your diet will do for you, what it will mean for you and so on. The reason being is that you're going to take yourself, your body and your life in a very different direction to where it's been going over the last few years.

One of the things you therefore need to have is a clear picture of your new destination. This will help you to keep on track. It's not the only thing but it's a great start.

As I've suggested, dieting is a big change to your life. The food is one part of it. The tools and techniques to maintain it over the longer haul are the other key part but which too often get overlooked. They need working on to develop them. It's these things that help you when you're struggling. By learning them and developing them they'll help you over the long haul because they'll keep your head in the right place.

The diet industry is just beginning to acknowledge this fact. Get in on the new trend in dieting now. Keep coming back to this site because it's dedicated to your long term success by giving you what you need to get your head in the right place.

Better still sign up so I can keep you updated.

Here's to your long term weight loss success

Creating a Powerful Vision

One of the techniques that's really going to help you achieve diet success is getting your mind geared towards being successful. One of the ways to do that is to flood it with images of you being successful at your diet. One of the reasons behind this is that studies of how the brain works show that it cannot distinguish between imagined and the real thing. I'll create something more on this in the future, but for right now let's leave it with the assumption it works.

Anyway one of the things that can help is something called a vision board. I first heard about vison boards when I watched a film with John Assaraf. It was a tool he has used to great effect. In fact I found a short video of him on Larry King discussing it.

Here it is:



More on this very soon. For now just have a think about it.

Are You Ready for Your New Year Diet?

Well Christmas Day has come and gone and maybe some of you are thinking about the food you've eaten. Maybe at the same time you have half an eye to the New Year and have decided it's time to shift a few pounds. Some of you may have much more ambitious goals. One way or another you may have decided you're going to go on a diet in the New Year.

Firstly good for you! You want something better for yourself and you've decided that January 1st will be your start date.

January 1st is a very ambitious day to start. So many people begin dieting right in the middle of one of the biggest eating times in the calendar. So that makes this a huge challenge. In fact some experts will say that New Years day is the worst time to embark on implementing a New Years Resolution, especially a New Year Diet. It's like a junkie going cold turkey right in the middle of his most prolonged period of drug abuse.

So yes, it's a big challenge. But it's not impossible. In fact, done correctly it can be quite manageable. The essential difference between those who succeed and those who fail at their diets is not those who start on New Years Day and those who don't. No. The difference between success and failure is more often down to those who have their head in the right place and those who don't.

So many people underestimate the power of the brain in achieving success where their diet is concerned. Too many people think it's all about food. Food is a part of it. Exercise is a part of it. But what makes you refuse certain foods? What makes you get of your chair and take a walk? It's your brain! It creates the conversation in your head that either makes you carry on past the fast food place or makes you pull into the drive through. It creates the conversation that propels you out of your seat or makes you reach for the remote. Everything, including your exercise or food decisions come from your brain.

Well here's a revelation.

You can control those thoughts and the successful dieters are those that have controlled those thoughts. If you're thinking seriously about getting back on the diet wagon this New Year, your brain is going to be vital. Fortunately this blog is all about that. So come back because I've so much to tell you. If you've got a friend who's talking about it, send them the link to this page.

Be Prepared to be Honest with yourself

I remember once being in an office listen to some people having a conversation. It wasn't about anything in particular as it seemed to cover a variety of subjects. The bit that stuck most in mind was when one of them said

"I can't work out why I'm not losing any weight"

Seems a fair enough comment except for the fact that she had just taken a bite out of a huge bar of chocolate.

It would have been rude to point out what seemed to everyone else to be obvious. Like so many people she's not alone.

Many people fight to lose weight, even though they seem to be obviously dieting. In fairness to this person, the reason was genuine invisible to them. I think it's also genuinely invisible to so many people who want to lose weight but don't seem to be enjoying success.

When I've talked to people for whom this is a problem they tell me they're counting calories, they're doing this and that. They're talking the lifestyle of the motivated dieter and it sounds great. However, when I spend any time with them I see totally different behavior. Portion sizes are bit larger than ideal, a quick snack here and there, cleaning up their own plates followed by picking the best bits from their child's plate (well can't have it going to waste can we)

What they say they're doing and what they're actually doing day to day are totally opposite to each other.

It's actually heartbreaking because for many, despite their actual behavior I think they actually believe their actions reflect their words, even though its clear they're doing the exact opposite.

I'll bet we've all seen this from people we know.

As I mentioned on the very first post in this blog, getting your head in the right place is absolutely vital to being successful in losing weight permanently. It's what this blog is all about.

To do that you need to be prepared to work on your mind. To make sure it's geared to help you succeed and to stay motivated, you need to know the best techniques that you can use every day. Get your mind on side and it will make lasting success at losing weight so much more likely. Get this right and you'll be so far ahead of every other dieter it's untrue.

What you therefore need to do in taking the first step is be prepared to be honest with yourself. Absolutely cold hard honesty. I'm not talking about beating yourself up. In fact I want you to learn to be positive with yourself. But honesty is what you need to take on board.

If you're going to lie to yourself, you're setting yourself up for failure from the outset. You'll be working against diet success from day one. The end result will be failure and you'll be setting another New Year Resolution to lose weight next Jan 1st.

So if you genuinely and truly are serious about losing weight, get ready to be honest with yourself. It's what truly successful people do. They don't beat themselves up. But, if they haven't done all they could do, they acknowledge that and determine to make it right next time.

Now this sounds a bit harsh but actually it's one of the most liberating things you can do. Once you start being honest with yourself, other things start to fall into place. Once you start being truly honest with yourself is the point you stop being afraid of yourself. And once you stop being afraid of yourself, you start to understand very clearly what steps you can take to work towards your success.

We're going to come back to this some more later as I'll go over the various principles time and time again so they become part of your everyday thinking.

But for now, just make a mental note that you'll prepare to be honest with yourself ready for your journey to losing weight forever.