New Year’s Resolutions – how to make those health resolutions actually stick

Addictions Specialist Mike Delaney shares his tips on how to make your New Year’s resolutions stick and explains why abstinence rarely works

Give up smoking!

Give up smoking!

If, like so many people, you’ve resolved to stop doing something in the New Year then you might be surprised to learn that only about one in twenty people actually succeed by going cold turkey.

Rather than embarking on a likely doomed strategy of total self-denial, Mike Delaney, a leading authority in the treatment of addictions with over 30 years’ consultancy experience in the UK and internationally, says that you will be far more successful if you introduce substitutes instead of cutting something out altogether.

The all-or-nothing total quitting approach is particularly problematic after the inevitable excesses of the festive period. Cognitive psychologists also don’t like it, as there is no margin between success and failure; one moment of weakness and you’ve “failed”, which can lead to the mentality – “why bother trying again?”


Mike’s top five tips to beat the vicious circle are as follows:

  1. Don’t set your goals too high as you will be setting yourself up to fail; make your resolutions reasonable and achievable and you will have a greater chance of success
  2. Don’t plan too many at once as this is also the road to failure, e.g. trying to stop smoking, lose weight, stop drinking and do more exercise is a huge piece of work to undertake on top of all the other challenges that a new year brings
  3. As they say, “take it one day at a time”; stopping something for 24hrs is easier than thinking you have to do it “forever”
  4. Use all the support you can muster! Family, friends, healthcare professionals and support groups all have a part to play if you use them; it also helps you to stay focused and strong every day
  5. Be kind to yourself and reward success; try putting money away every day that you have managed to save by not indulging in your bad habit; at the end of every week or month that you have achieved success, buy yourself something that you have wanted, treat yourself to a spa weekend etc.

 

So, whether your habit is eating too much chocolate, drinking too much, or smoking, watch our video to hear Mike explain his top tips on making this year’s resolutions ones you can truly stick to.

Winning at Weight Loss – some tips for the New Year

As the holiday season comes to an end it is time to turn our thoughts to our New Year’s resolutions for 2016.

After the blow out of the last few weeks weight loss it at the top of many of our lists.

So we thought it would be useful so share this great tips for weight loss.

For a few others please check out a older blog post here.


Winning at Weight Loss

From Visually.

How Regular Exercise Helps Lose Weight

Regular activity is very vital for good health and is especially much important if one is trying to cut off excess weight or to maintain a healthy lifestyle and healthy weight levels. More body activities are needed when one intents to loose weight. The reason behind this is that physical activities increase the amount of calories your body uses for energy. The burning of calories through physical activities together with reduced amounts of calories intake creates caloric deficit that results in weight loss.

Accelerates Burning of Calories

Fitness and Weight Loss

Fitness and Weight Loss

According to latest weight loss news & tips most of the weight loss occurs due to reduced caloric intake. However, evidence shows that the only way to lose drastically is to get engaged in regular physical activities. Regular physical activities can also reduce the risk of cardiovascular and diabetes apart from weight loss. Physical activities also help reduce high blood pressure, minimizes chances of contacting type 2 diabetes, heart attack and several forms of cancer. They also reduce the risk of arthritis, pain and associated disability, reduce the risk of osteoporosis and also minimize symptoms of depression and anxiety.


Weight loss activity has for a long time been confused with a pack of myths that have no scientific proofs behind them. However, there a few tips that are mainly based from scientific findings by some of the world’s most qualified scientists and have been rated with positive implications towards weight loss approaches. This is a high time to dawn light broadly to everyone that regular exercises works out perfectly with the combination of the following latest weight loss tips. Here are some of the latest lifestyle news and tips for weight loss that are worth trying:

  1. Drink much water prior to mealtime

This is an open truth and for real drinking water before meals works out perfect to enhance weight loss. One boosts metabolism by 24 to 30% over a period of 1 to 1.5hours by drinking water. This helps in burning excess calories. Drinking water about half an hour before meals helps dieters eat fewer calories and loose approximately 44% more weight.

  1. Consume protein-rich breakfast

Apart from nutritional benefits that one gets by eating eggs, it also helps him/her lose weight. Numerous studies have found that replacing a grain-based breakfast with eggs help you eat fewer calories for the next few hours. You will also feel satisfied for the better part of the day before main meals. Won’t this prevent you from reaching out to unhealthy snacks? This helps one lose more weight and body fat. If at all you can’t eat eggs at all, any source of quality protein for breakfast can tickle out the trick.

  1. Make black coffee your favorite beverage

Coffee has been unfairly demonized over years and for real quality coffee is loaded with antioxidants that that contains lots of health benefits. Research shows caffeine in coffee can boost metabolism by 4-10% and thus increase fat burning up from 15-30%. However, it is recommendable to avoid using too much sugar because it is rich in calories which can completely negate all the benefits you may expect from the coffee. In addition, taking green tea also works out in a similar way as coffee since it contains some fractions of caffeine that works in synergistic ways to enhance the burning of excess fats. It can be taken either as a beverage or green tea extract supplement.

  1. Use coconut oil in all your meals

Coconut oil is very healthy and its high in special fats called medium chain triglycerides which are metabolized differently than other fats. One should replace his/her current cooking oil with coconut oil and this will boost metabolism by 120 calories per day, reduce appetite to the extent that you start eating 25% fewer calories per day.

  1. Take supplements

In reference to online publications of the latest lifestyle news and tips, supplementing has always been an option for those who can’t have access to balanced diets that are rich in minerals and essential nutrients. There are many supplements that are rich in fiber, which helps to absorb water and sits in the gut for long hours, making you feel fuller and helping you eat fewer calories.

Additional Tips

In addition to the above factors, one should also cut on added sugar, eat less refined carbs by switching to a low carb diet, exercise portion control or count calories, keep health food around in case he/she gets hungry and above all, use smaller plates that makes you get used to eating small amounts of food.  This will ensure that you are burning more calories than you eat.

Conclusion

Excess weight comes about as a result of poor eating habits that result in excess calories. No one enjoys it when he/she is reading overweight. This makes him or her uncomfortable and this limits the social life that one lives. Therefore, for comfort, regular exercises and better eating habits help one to live a healthy and happy life.

References

https://www.consumerhealthdigest.com/fitness/

https://www.glozine.com/lifestyle/health

A vegan low calorie summer berry ice-cream – great for being part of a weight loss diet

Everyone enjoys ice cream and now you can without ruining your diet

Everyone enjoys ice cream and now you can without ruining your diet

If you think ice-cream is complicated to make and heavy on the calories, think again.

Nutritionist and chef, Christine Bailey shows us just how easy and nutritious ice-cream can be with a few fresh ingredients.

This recipe is rich and creamy but low in calories thanks to the 0 calorie stevia sweetener, and the berry and mint combination keeps it refreshingly light for the taste buds.

Use the season’s brightest berries to make this dairy free, gluten free recipe high in flavour and perfectly on trend.

It’s the perfect sweet treat for the whole year round.

Intermittent fasting – find out about this brilliant way to lose weight and improve health


Intermittent Fasting

Intermittent fasting is not a form of starvation but a way for you to time your meals to maximize your body’s ability to burn fat. Embed this infographic on your site to serve as a guide for you to create a healthy eating plan, and reap the many benefits of fasting done the right way. Use the embed code to share it on your website or visit our infographic page for the high-res version.

<img src="https://media.mercola.com/assets/images/infographic/intermittent-fasting.jpg" alt="Intermittent Fasting" border="0" style="max-width:100%; min-width:300px; margin: 0 auto 20px auto; display:block;"><p style="max-width:800px; min-width:300px; margin:0 auto; text-align:center;">"<a href="http://www.mercola.com/infographics/intermittent-fasting.htm">Intermittent fasting</a>" is not a form of starvation but a way for you to time your meals to maximize your body's ability to burn fat. Embed this infographic on your site to serve as a guide for you to create a healthy eating plan, and reap the many benefits of fasting done the right way. Visit our infographic page for the high-res version.</p>

Now my wife and I are on the 5:2 diet so I found this infographic very interesting.

Have you tried intermittent fasting? If so please share your story in the comments section below.