Plan now for waistline later! Simple easy to follow steps to avoid putting on weight over the Christmas holiday period. If you make some subtle changes now, you can enjoy less stress and are less likely to resort to ‘extreme weight loss measures’ in January like crash diets. If you’re not thinking of using hypnosis for weight loss, or NLP goal setting with a coach, these tips can help you.

Put in less food and then hibernating in front of box-sets, isn’t ideal. Its realistic to assume you will eat more than usual and often foods you don’t normally indulge in. If you’re going to eat more then offset that with more movement or make slight tweaks and exchanges so you get the sweetness and flavour without the heavy carbs!

A good way to update your Christmas diet plan is to include more healthy food and stick to well known rules for weight management. You are what you eat. Being more mindful of what you put into your body and breaking habits and cravings will give you back more control, allowing you to indulge at your wish, rather than it being a need for greed.

Some drinks and foods are going to be better for you than others, they will contain more vitamins and the body will be able to use them more effectively for your health than others. Pause before you indulge.

You have choice and the best way to give yourself choice is to pause. Practice taking a moment to become mindful of what you are about to put into your body. We often eat unconsciously, meaning the choices of foods we indulge in are motivated by unconscious factors. Often stress, emotions, needs to feed something more psychological than physical. Become mindful of what you want the food or the drink for exactly, can allow you to take a momentary breath. Creating a new interruption in your pattern to eat has major benefits. What you begin to do is you begin to open new opportunity for change.

The first step to change is noticing what you are doing NOW, breaking the pattern by taking a few breaths before you indulge and asking yourself what this food or drink is giving you can highlight the motivational drivers behind it. You may discover emotional needs and even attachments to certain foods over others.

Colder weather can often put people off exercising for those without a personal trainer to goad them. That extra push to get to the gym, game or to the swimming pool can be tricky especially with a busy lifestyle. So, set Body and Health Goal’s that work for you now, in this weather and in relation to your diary of celebrations and parties! Realistic goals are the key thing to remember here. Little and often and a little of what you fancy will help you stick to your plan more easily. A good diet at Christmas is one that contains a little of what you fancy rather than a lot of what you fancy.

You are in control so take it. Think – where are you NOW in relation to where you want to be?

TRY THIS QUICK TECHNIQUE TO PROGRAM THE JANURY YOU!

Take a moment to take your vision upwards, daydream now and look up to create the image of where you want to be at the beginning of 2017 so you can plan for it and sustain the plan with that goal in mind.

How will that goal feel as you can imagine yourself in that image, feeling what your body feels like, breathes like. How does being this new you feel psychologically. Now look down and notice what you might look like if you didn’t follow your plan. Different isn’t it and it feels a lot worse.

Now look up again to the new and sustained healthier version of you. Make the image brighter. Make the image clearer and more colourful. See the vibrancy of your energy!

Use the weather and outdoor environment to your benefit! We burn more calories to keep warm so enjoy that fact and wrap up, get outside and move. Your body can move so choose movement that will support that goal AND that you can and will stick to when the nights draw in.

Choosing the stairs instead of the lift, stretching gently and talking a walk in the park with the family after dinner will help you burn more caleries to help stay warm and this goes in your favour. Just one extra 30 minute walk a day after your meal can really make a difference!

Having a REALISTIC and healthy goal in mind now will begin to guide you over the indulgences of Christmas eating and your dietary habits can begin to support that. Have your cake and eat it, just be mindful that you can counteract it by moving more and remembering that whatever you put in you must burn or you’ll likely store it as fat. Adding that extra bit of enjoyable and easy movement is just one simple habit that will definitely help you keep the fat off over Christmas.

With my clients what I found really helped them took about half an hour to make and really kept them on track. They created a picture board of them now and their ideal fitness and health shape on the opposite page and they pinned it to their notice board (one bravely had it in her office at work apparently!) and others have it on their fridge. This constant visual reminder acts to motivate your internal fitness coach! YOU. It triggers your emotions and values and seeing it is a motivation. If it works then use it!

Christmas diet rules are simple – little and often. Move more if you’re going to eat more or you can expect the dial on scales to creep up. I’m a hypnotherapist and by January the phone is ringing with desperate clients wanting immediate help for their goal setting and gluttony results. “I want to be thin again”, “I’m fat and I ate too much over Christmas” one woman shrieked down the phone at me this year. As the onset of the gluttony season approaches, here are some tips to send you merrily on your way and not have the crash dieting craziness or January Blues!

You’re reading this to help you stay on track. Perhaps you are planning on small portions – just lots of them! Be mindful of the following and it will set you on the right path.

Be Kind to yourself! A Christmas diet is a healthier one and one that allows you to enjoy yourself so a little of what you fancy and that extra dancing at the Xmas party will help lift your spirits and keep you on track plus you will burn more calories!

Be realistic about your expectations in order to manage them. You can enjoy yourself and also stay on track. A little bit of weight gain over Christmas is not the end of the world and most people experience it.

It’s OK! Keep going and stick to your plans as much as possible. Hypnosis for that amazing extra subconscious push and programming can also work wonders! I provide hypnosis for weightloss and goal setting health hypnotherapy for people to break habits, stop smoking and help you become healthier.