Essential Oils: Essential Oils (The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Uncovering the Healing Benefits of Aromatherapy) (29 page)

ACTION PLAN

Meditating requires your conviction and commitment. If you make it a part of your morning ritual, then in addition to weight-loss, you will soon start seeing multiple benefits.

• Set aside a time and place.
  You need to give meditation its due because it requires peace and quiet. Find a quiet place in the early morning when you can remain undisturbed and uninterrupted to focus on your mind and thoughts.
  
• Get comfortable.
  Usually
  meditation requires you to sit in a comfortable position. While, traditionally it is recommended that you sit cross-legged, in what is known in Yoga as the lotus position, you may choose to sit in a chair if that makes you comfortable. Eventually, when you have made it a habit, you will be able to do it anywhere, anytime and even while doing anything.
  
• Keep an open mind.
  It is said that the first step towards enlightenment is to keep an open mind. Though this may sound spiritual, it is also practical. You can harbor scepticism only if you have an open mind. A closed mind prevents you from having new experiences and exploring new possibilities.
  

Depression and weight-gain go hand in hand. When you are sad or even bored, you tend to eat indiscriminately leading to weight gain.

Unhappiness also triggers cortisol, the stress hormone, which interferes with your metabolism, packing those pounds around your belly region. Weight around the waist, as the doctor will tell you, is not a good sign. It can lead to diabetes and heart problems, not to mention low self-esteem issues.

According to a study conducted by researchers at the University of Alabama in Birmingham, people who suffer from depression tend to gain weight faster than people who are not. So, there you have your reason to smile more often.

Research also shows that if you begin your day with a smile, then you are more likely to be happy throughout the day. So, you’ve got nothing to lose but some extra pounds by starting your morning with a smile, when you wake up.

Smile your way to slim.

Here’s a simple method to determine what kind of a person you want to be. Take a look at photographs of different people in the media.

Take for instance, people who are sitting in an office typing away at a computer, or people who are shopping or people who are eating. The predominant expression on their faces will be of boredom or even worry. Of course, a few of them may appear happy but the majority of them will look sad.

Now, take a look at people who are singing or dancing or even running. You will find joy on their face. Even if they are not specifically smiling, you will be able to discern the happiness on their faces.

Now go back and take a look at their bodies. You will notice that the majority of the people who smile are slim and those who frown are fat.

Laughter is really the best medicine.

When you laugh, a series of physiological changes happen within your body. Whether it is an open hearted laugh or a demure smile, your body releases endorphins when you are happy. Endorphins are hormones that make you feel good and safe.

The peculiar thing about endorphins is that while it is associated with pleasure, they also help the brain to combat pain. In addition to happiness, the release of endorphins is also stimulated when you perform physical activities such as exercise or sex and even when you eat certain types of spicy food.

The feeling of wellbeing or content that comes with the release of endorphins can actually help you lose weight. Now is there a better way to lose weight than feeling good about it?

ACTION PLAN

We often forget to smile. In fact, the best way to find out how often we smile is to ask someone to take candid shots of you without being aware you are photographed. You’ll realize how much more you need to smile.

• Count your blessings.
  This will make you thankful for what you have and you will find more reasons to smile more often.
  
• Ask yourself, “Will this matter in a year?”
  When we worry or are sad, we are thinking short-term and casting a shadow over our own future. As Erma Bombeck says, “Worry is like a rocking chair; it gives you something to do but never gets you anywhere.”
  
• Be around happy people.
  Happiness is infectious. So is sadness. If you hang with negative people, then their negativity rubs off on you. On the other hand, if you interact with positive people, you will be motivated to look at life optimistically.
  

Typically, people plan these three meals—breakfast, lunch and dinner—when they go on a diet.

The trouble with this is that most people, especially if they are trying to lose weight, find that they feel hungry in between meals because these three meals are generally not enough to get them through the day.

So, they snack in between meals. Since it is just a snack, most people think that it doesn’t count or they chose to ignore what they eat as a snack. This is how the weight-loss program starts crumbling and the calories start creeping in without your even realizing it.

So, the other option is to eat more often, say six smaller meals in a day. This also has its drawbacks, if you don’t plan exactly what you are going to eat.

Meticulously plan your meals every morning.

When people have a weight-loss objective in mind, the most important thing that they focus when it comes to food is quantity. That is they think that the best option is to eat smaller portions.

Logically speaking, this should work because if you eat less, you should lose weight, isn’t it? However, practically, it doesn’t work. Why? Whether you eat more or less, if you eat the wrong things you will not lose weight and may even gain some.

Take for instance food with processed sugar. It may just be a glass of soda or a cookie but those calories count and they add up.

You know that processed sugar is not good for you but when you are hungry, it’s not easy to say no to temptation. If you don’t have a healthy snack available, then you settle for what’s there right in front of you. So, while the quantity of your meal is important but not as much as the quality of what you are eating.

Keep that snack ready.

This is why it is important to not only plan your meals but prepare your snacks so you eat healthy. There are many online sources which will help you plan and prepare all your meals including your snacks for a whole meal.

The first thing you should do is get rid of the ingredients or food that you wish to avoid. This is so that you are not tempted to consume them or do so without realizing it.

The next thing is to keep healthy snacks handy. These include snacks that you can easily carry around with you and munch on when you feel hungry or when you think you need the energy.

So carry an apple, an orange or bananas. These are not only healthy for you because they are low in calories but they are also high in healthy carbohydrates that provide energy.

Cucumbers and tomatoes are also ideal to eat in between meals. More often, the body confuses thirst signals with hunger. So, eating cucumbers make sense because they have a high water content to quench your thirst while satisfying your physiological need to bite into something crunchy.

As a rule of thumb, it is best to stick to natural food such as fruits and vegetables and avoid packaged food such as yoghurt, fruit juice or even energy bars. Unless you are running a marathon, you won’t be burning the calories you get from these.

ACTION PLAN

• Pack your snack in the morning.
  You never know when you will feel hungry. Therefore it is better to have a snack you know is good than eat something you are doubtful about.
  
• Eat a heavy breakfast.
  There’s a whole chapter devoted to this in this book but there’s no harm in repeating it again. When you eat a hearty breakfast that is healthy, then you will be less likely to feel hungry during the day.
  
• Stay hydrated.
  Drinking water in between meals keeps you hydrated and regulates your appetite. It also helps you in flushing out the toxins that build up in your system during the day.
  
• Drink water or green tea.
  In our busy schedules, we tend to drink soda, coffee, tea and juices without realizing that they are laden with sugar which directly contributes to your weight. Instead take a sip of plain water or drink green tea without milk or sugar to stay healthy and hydrated.
  

If you enjoy doing something, then you will continue doing it. If on the other hand, you are forced to do something that you don’t like or something that you do not really believe in, then the chances of you giving it up is more likely.

This is why most people who want to lose weight, put off exercising because they are generally too tired to do it at the end of the day. But there’s no excuse to feel tired in the morning, is there?

We have listed out a series of healthy morning habits that you can string together to form a morning ritual. A habit or a ritual is something that you repeatedly do till it becomes second nature.

Consider what you do when you get into your car. You check your rear-view mirrors and the visibility of your windshield. This is a safety check which you initially learnt so that you could pass your driving test and get your driving license. This was your reward. Over the years, it has become a pre-driving ritual that you perform without thinking even when you already have the reward which is the driving license.

Connect a reward to the ritual.

For most of us, when we start a ritual or a habit, a reward is a great way to reinforce the importance of it. In his book, ‘The Power of Habit,’ Charles Duhigg emphasizes the need to link rewards to habits or rituals especially if it is a new or unfamiliar one. Why?

Your brain looks at anything new or out of the ordinary as a chore or something that requires enormous effort, Consider exercising, for instance. However, when you link the habit with something that you enjoy such as a massage or a cold shower as a reward, then the pleasure of the reward gets transferred onto the ritual.

Basically, it’s a trick you play on your own mind or consciousness. So, as we mentioned before, if drinking a liter of water when you wake up seems like a chore then you can round it off by having a cup of tea or coffee after it.

Over time, you stop associating drinking water as something that requires an effort and it becomes something that you automatically do, like checking the rear-view mirrors before you drive your car.

Indulge in your desires.

When you want to wake up early every day, you think you need enormous will power. So the thought of waking up becomes formidable.

Now think of going to work every day. Even if you say that you enjoy what you do, it still requires some amount of will power to get up and go to work every day. What is the motivation to do so? Is it payday or is it something else in the future like an annual performance bonus?

So, how about creating a reward like a bonus at the end of a month for following your morning rituals? What will be your reward? You decide what you desire. It could be a meal at a restaurant of your choice or it could be a rare vintage bottle of Shiraz or simply a lazy day on the beach.

You’ve earned it only if you followed your morning ritual for the last 30 days. Well, you can cheat but remember you are cheating yourself.

ACTION PLAN

• Announce your 30-day challenge and the reward you intend to give yourself.
  Post it on your social networking page or let your friends and family know. This way you will be held accountable by people who care for you. An unexpected pleasant outcome could be that someone who cares about you might sponsor your reward!
  
• Keep an activity log or diary.
  Writing down your daily rituals and ticking them off makes it easy especially in the beginning. When you do so, you are less likely to skip or forget a habit or ritual.
  
• Keep a reminder of the reward in plain sight.
  Whatever your reward, keep reminding yourself by looking at it regularly on a poster or as a desktop image on your computer or as the screen saver on your phone. It will serve as a constant reminder to keep you motivated.
  

Here are lists of translations among many different languages!

La pérdida de peso naturalmente

Paso 7 Guía para la pérdida de peso naturalmente, perder peso no deseado y crear hábitos saludables

Por: Abigail Cruise

Introducción

La pérdida de peso puede ser un tema confuso, con tanta información contradictoria, es difícil saber qué es verdad y qué no lo es. Lo que puede y no puede funcionar. Se debe perder peso de manera natural, o ir en una dieta para dejar caer el peso rápidamente y luego volver a comer sano?

Para hacer este confuso asunto tan sencillo y fácil para que usted siga posible, he destilado hacia abajo en 7 pasos, que cuando son seguidas, la garantía perderá una cantidad significativa de peso, construir su salud, se siente animado y enérgico, y ser capaz de mantener estos cambios - porque no es una dieta extrema, hambre o régimen de ejercicio excesivo. 

Paso 7 El plan está bien redondeado y fácil de seguir, incluso para las personas que están ocupados, podría haber intentado y no perder peso antes, o no saben todavía lo conducirá a la pérdida de peso. 

Usted puede perder peso rápidamente; hasta 10 libras en 7 días; pero lo que es más importante, usted está haciendo un cambio de estilo de vida, lo que significa que no podrá recuperar todo el peso de nuevo tan pronto como termine el plan de 7 pasos. 

Los 7 pasos son como sigue:

1. Define tus objetivos
   
2. El compromiso con el plan y lo que usted necesita hacer para tener éxito
   
3. Principios de pérdida de peso natural
   
4. Cómo comer
   
5. Cómo ejercer
   
6. Los hábitos de vida y de cómo hacer este proceso tan discreto y agradable como sea posible a fin de mantener los resultados para siempre
   
7. Mejorar la salud, tener más energía y perder peso naturalmente - consejos y trucos adicionales