Antiaging Wellness Blog

I have had several conversations of late with people already lamenting their dietary lapses due to Christmas and holiday festivities, and asking for advice on how to keep to their diets. My response to them, and to you is this – FORGET IT!!  For goodness sakes, unless you have a hypersensitivity to a particular food or a medical condition such as Diabetes, a week or two of less than perfect diet is perfectly acceptable, so give yourself a break.

I always suffer a reaction from strawberries each year, which manifests as big red lumps on my face. Even when I try to ‘ready’ my system by just 1 or 2 strawberries a day for a week before indulging in any greater quantity, it still gets me most years. I love strawberries, and am just not that worked up about looking perfect for everyone else, at the cost of denying myself one of lifes pleasures over a short period.

Diets should be ‘lifestyle based’ not regimented weight loss focused. It’s more about adopting a long term healthy eating and exercise pattern; a few lapses for special life events just doesn’t matter. I actually believe its a good test to see what foods or temptations you are still sensitive to. So what if you enjoy a bit of chocolate and a few extra wines for a week or two. Have faith in yourself, that overall, your approach to your health is good and you deserve the enjoyment of a few treats now and then.

A good technique is the ‘pay it forward’ approach. If you know you are going out for a special lunch or party, make sure you do your exercise program that day, and maybe strive a bit harder or bit longer to work off a few extra calories beforehand, and to keep your metabolism burning.

Use a few tricks like drinking two glasses of water for each glass of wine, and only having a taste of something delectable, rather than eating the whole thing. I honestly believe that if you deny yourself every treat, you will become so focused on the food that you are ‘missing’ that you end up eating far more in calories in other ‘better substitute’ options, than if you allow yourself a small indulgence of the real thing.

So get over it, and get out there and have fun.

Merry Xmas and See You Back in the New Year

Nicola

Why is it that those of us that have worked our butts off to get a bit more into our lives than the average person are termed “lucky”?

I’m not just talking about money. Personal wealth comes in many forms; great relationships, sports achievements, business achievements, financial wealth, happiness.

I have achieved more than most people in many areas of my life; and maybe I have been lucky in being blessed with an athletic physique, higher than average intellect and parenting that taught me how to apply myself to a task. But in general, it has taken considerable effort to achieve each and every one of my milestones. I studied hard, missed out of many pleasure activities my peers indulged in and paid the price every step of the way.

The great thing is that anyone with a place to stand can be lucky. It only takes two things:

1. Knowledge
2. Action

There is little excuse today not to have access to knowledge. The Internet has opened a treasure chest on information and free public access is available from many sites such as libraries, schools, cyber-cafes.

Action takes a little more effort, but the key is simple – have a good system. Once you have a good system it can be applied to any task.

Having a systematic approach to success is to me THE most important element. Knowledge can be gathered along the way, and ‘fake it till you make it’ can carry you through early weak spots. Action plans also help carry you through those dark phases, you know the ones! You have passed through the early frenetic stage fuelled by the passion of your new venture, and are slogging it out late at night with the niggling feeling that you have not achieved anything like what you had hoped to at this stage. In many activities we pursue, we don’t know what we don’t know. We may be able to work out the actions necessary to add to an action plan, but we don’t always know exactly what is involved in making each step happen.

What I do know however, is that those that succeed are the ones that kept going when all others faded away. Just having a step by step plan, and working that plan irrespective of how long it takes you to complete each step or what roadblocks you encounter, this is what hails “luck” to your doorstep. So next time someone tells you how lucky you are; just smile!

Nicola