Motivation Is Key

If you're having a hard time staying on the right track of proper weightloss, your determination could be waning.  Succeeding with your diet relies on staying motivated and grounded in your reasons for wanting to shed those excess pounds. Beyond food restrictions and rigid exercise regimens, your reasons serve as the backbone of your entire diet program. Having the wrong reasons for dieting could mean losing motivation halfway through it. Below, I share the three main reasons that motivates me to keep up with the diet I have started:

• My health
  Having reached my 30's with all these unsightly excess weight puts me at risk of coming down with many illnesses. Since heart disease and diabetes runs in my family, losing weight is imperative if I don't want to contract either one of them. Moreover, my chances of getting them earlier than my other older relatives is higher given the kind of stressful lifestyle I live.

• My sanity
  Several heartbreaks lead to countless binge-eating sprees. These resulted to more than 50 pounds of unwanted flab accumulating mostly around my tummy. And with this my self-esteem took a radical plunge. To keep myself from going mad due to the anxiety borne of poor self-esteem, I mustered the courage to finally get serious with weightloss.

Written By: Maris Modesto

Three Great Health Habits to Live by

Growing old gracefully doesn't mean resigning ourselves to the inevitable negative health effects that come with aging. Even if I have yet to see the telltale signs of the years manifest themselves on my face and health, as early as now, I've resolved to practice living healthy. Of the many helpful practices we must follow, these three measures top my list:

• Stay on top of stress.
  Stress control begins with the mind. Many illnesses result from stress overload. Apart from practicing relaxation techniques and other recognized stress-relieving measures, I see to it that I've got my mind properly programmed to take on stress. How? By predisposing myself to stay calm all the time and never let the small stuff get to me.

• Never scrimp on sleep. I know sleeping a full eight hours every day is a real challenge given today's busy lifestyle. But I do try. If ever I lack sleep, I make up for it by sleeping more the next day or taking power naps.

• Pile on the fruits and veggies. Fruits and veggies are our top sources of antioxidants. Besides taking daily vitamins, I make sure that I eat more fresh fruits and veggies than meat. 

Written By: Maris Modesto

Why am I optimistic?

There would always be two ways of looking at everything: Either we see the glass as half-empty or half-full. Regardless of which one we are inclined to choose, our decision does nothing to change the reality set before us. However, it could impact us deeply on a personal level, laying the ground for the direction our lives take.

From a medical standpoint, researches have advocated the truth on how our way of thinking affects our overall health. Though we may not be aware of it, making the deliberate, albeit unconscious, choice to see the glass as half-empty(pessimistic) or half-full(optimistic) does affect our body's immunity system, especially our ability to take on stress. Taking these into serious consideration, the reasons I've listed below explain why I've intentionally programmed my mind to always look on the bright side:

• I want to be happy.
  Life would always be a matter of ups and downs. Rolling with the punches and seeing the good in things no matter how dismal is the best way I know how to keep myself sane and happy.

• I am no masochist.
  Being pessimistic only intensifies life's blows needlessly. Why punish myself further? 

Written By: Maris Modesto

Diet Slips to Avoid

• Gorging during eat-outs.
  In the fast-paced life characterizing today, eating at fastfoods and restaurants are part and parcel of city living. And because foods served in these establishments are often calorie-laden and at times even unhealthy, practising vigilance whenever you eat out is a must.

• Indulging yourself in family food faves.
  It does not mean that your hubby and kids are feasting on a pizza, you can do the same too. Knowing that such foods can be bad for you when you eat too much, you should muster the self-discipline to practise control whenever necessary—and this includes those uber-tempting times when you are forced to watch everyone else have their fill of a local favorite. Should you find yourself in such a situation, it would be best to just divert your attention. Busy yourself with other things while everyone eats.

• A nibble here, a nibble there.
  Nibbles may not count as much when you look at it individually. But accumulated nibbles could rake in as much or even more calories than you realize. You would be better off dealing with your hunger pangs by having a full meal instead of eating bit by bit.

Written By: Maris Modesto

The Mentally De-cluttering Benefits of House Cleaning

The visually rewarding merits of living in a clean environment cannot be argued upon. But did you know that such visual pleasure also radiates positive health benefits capable of affecting your mind? Classified as one of the practices of mindfulness, house cleaning possesses a literal (tidying up your house) and figurative (doing away with your emotional baggage) interpretation. Both of them serve to benefit you mentally by bringing your mind into a state of mindfulness. Being mindful means having your mind cleared of unwanted and unnecessary thoughts induced either by your environment or your mind per se—as a reaction to your experiences.

As the cliché goes, “It's all in the mind.” And to ready your mind for maximizing the midfulness reward you get from cleaning your house, observe these important pointers:

• Before you start tidying up, you must first program your mind to view the exercise as a beneficial one—an easy but very effective way of understanding yourself in a deeper sense.
• Tell yourself that cleaning your house  relieves your stress—each area cleaned lifts the burden off your mind.
• While you are cleaning, focus on the sensations perceived by your senses in every activity of the moment.

Written By : Maris Modesto

Lifestyle Changes for Successful Weight Loss

If you are looking to succeed in losing weight, serious lifestyle changes have to be made. Like everything else, turning your exercise regimen and healthy eating plan into a routine requires diligence and practice. To help you get started, consider these suggestions:

• Better your workout routine.
  To keep your metabolism up, perform a combination of cardio and resistance exercises. Do this on a regular basis.

• Practice effective stress management.
  Stress can derail you from pursuing a healthy eating plan and workout routine. As such, it could send wrong signals, prompting you to eat more or binge whenever you are confronted by adverse emotions or situations. To keep it under your control, learn to practice effective stress management—meditation, creative pursuits, journaling, etc.

• Don't miss out on sleep.
  Some studies have pointed out the definite link between lack of sleep and weight gain. Even if keeping up with a busy schedule means compromising sleep at times, make sure that you make up for them, and try not to scrimp on your snooze time as much as possible.

Written By: Maris Modesto

The Compulsive Eater

As a teen, it never occurred to me that I had an eating problem. But as my binging frenzies increased—along with the rising stress I had to deal with as I matured—it wasn't long before my digestive system finally reacted, causing pain and bowel irregularities that worsened with the passing of the years.

After a third vist to the doctor, the reality behind my destructive inclination was finally brought to light. Although my attending doctor then didn't really give me a formal diagnosis of being a compulsive eater, he suggested that I get counseling to address any underlying issue that could have prompted my wild eating habits. All these indications I had fit the profile of a compulsive eater to a tee:

• Gorging on copious amounts of food though I wasn't physically hungry
• Eating at a faster than usual, especially when stressed out
• Inability to stop even when full
• A strong urge to eat alone and hide my eating habits from others
• Guilt/depressive feelings following a binging spree
• Linking my frustrations and failures to my weight
• Jumping from one diet to another in an effort to lose weight
• Making eating and dieting the focus of my life

Written By: Maris Modesto