Although sadly the weather is not yet at its best,  and it certainly feels a little chilly for the month of May, it may well perk up by the bank holiday weekend. If this happens you can be sure that there may well be the opportunity of having, or attending a barbeque. It’s time to sit back, relax and spend the time in the great outdoors with the smell or charcoal in the air.

Barbeque, bar-b-cue or BBQ – no matter how you spell it, it comes down to the same thing: usually huge piles of meat and bowls of salad. Barbequing can actually be a healthy way to cook: cooking meats slowly and a good distance above the flames allows the fat to melt and drip away. But, like anything else, there are traps lurking at every corner, waiting to catch out the healthy eater.

One of the big problems with bbq’s is that there is usually a massive amount of food and lots of variety. It’s easy to lose track of what exactly you have eaten, as the food is often served as it is cooked rather than served in one go. Unfortunately, this can be a fatal trap for those of us watching our waistlines – a bit of this, a spoonful of that, just one of everything, please – it all adds up. If you add together, a burger, a sausage, a couple of pieces of chicken, oh and then the lamb cutlet, the handful of peanuts with pre- dinner drinks and then the spoonfuls of potato salad drenched in mayonnaise and the green salad tossed in copious amounts of oil laden dressing, plus the pudding and a couple of glasses of vino – it adds up to a lot of extra food. In fact, if you are actually counting calories you could easily turn your “healthy” bbq into a day’s worth of calories in one meal!

So if you are planning a bbq or attending one, how can you support your weight loss efforts, eat healthily and still have a wonderful time?

It’s easy when you know how. Take a look at the tips below to help you enjoy your bbq and keep on track with your weight loss and healthy eating:

1) Instead of tortillas, crisps and peanuts as a way of kicking of the day, whilst the food is being cooked, opt for some lovely crunchy crudities and perhaps a low calorie dip or low calories humus. Putting a teaspoonful of each on your plate and dipping your crudities, should enable you to see exactly how much you are eating.

2) Swap the fatty, less healthy burgers and sausages for chicken or fish choices. Or if you really do want burgers then make your own with some lovely extra lean mince.

3) Make a green salad and put the dressing in a jug, so that you can add a little if you wish to – rather than tossing the whole salad in dressing.

4) A wine spritzer or a spirit drink mixed with a low calories soft drink will go further and be less calorific.

5) And don’t forget veggies are fab on the barbie – make colourful kebabs with tomatoes, onions, courgette, mushrooms and peppers. If you like fish add a few king prawns for colour and flavour.

6) Boiled rice goes beautifully with fish and chicken and gives a clean taste or if you do want potato, try jacket potatoes with a little butter on the side.

 7) If you fancy a pudding, then either choose a lower calorie option such as fresh fruit salad, or meringue with fruit and low calories fromage frais, or if you really do want something a bit more calorific then either choose to have a small piece and savour it,  or share a pudding with your nearest and dearest. Often a little of what you fancy is enough to satisfy you, rather than depriving yourself altogether only to eventually cave in at the end of the evening and have two or three helpings and then feel bad about it!

The post Weight Loss Tips for the Bank Holiday appeared first on Maria Furtek Hypnotherapy.

So many people are unhappy with their weight and body shape and feel that they have tried every method and diet, to lose their excess pounds. Many clients prior to coming to seeing me say that they have struggled with weight loss for much of their adult lives. As a specialist Surrey based weight loss Hypnotherapist, who works with women to successfully turn around a life of being overweight to one of being slim, I believe that to successfully lose weight, you need to have have the right mindset about weight loss as well as adopting some healthy lifestyle changes to your habits and behaviour around food. Below I have shared some tips to help you start working towards having the right mindset that will support weight loss and stop the struggle to lose weight.

 Creating a the right mindset:

To successfully lose weight, you must have the right mental mindset. You must believe that you can and will successfully lose weight. You must believe that it is possible, and that you deserve to lose weight. As the saying goes “If you think you can, or you think you can’t, you are absolutely right!” (Henry Ford)

Once you believe and know you have the ability to do something, it becomes much easier to take the action to do it.

If you don’t believe you can lose weight, then it is like trying to go forward with a ball and chain around your ankle: the limiting belief will slow you down, trip you up and make weight loss a struggle for you. If you find that you have a limiting belief about shedding your excess weight then ask yourself the following questions:

1) What is it that I believe? What exactly is my limiting belief?

E.g “I don’t deserve to be slim!”

2) Where has this belief come from? (childhood? my mother? Other people? my experience so far?)

E.g. “As a child I never felt “good enough” and my parents always told me that I was lazy and didn’t deserve the things I had! ”

3) What would be the opposite of this belief?

E.g.“Believing that I deserve to be healthy and slim, that I am good enough to have this!”

4) If I had that belief what would I be doing, saying, thinking, seeing and feeling to lose weight?

E.g.:“I would make a plan about how I am going to achieve my weight loss and take action to do it. I would look after myself better, because I would deserve to invest time in my own health and well being. I would be encouraging myself to take action and keep going and I would feel positive, lighter and know that I am taking the steps to change my weight!”

If you get to step 4 and you cannot even begin to imagine what it would be like to hold the opposite belief, then you probably need a bit of help to support you in making this leap in mindset. This is one aspect of the work I do with my Weight Hypnotherapy and You clients – help them transform limiting beliefs they may be holding about themselves and their weight, so that they can then create the right mindset and take action to lose weight for the long term. If you would like to find out more about the ,   programme,  then just click on the logo to find out more, or fill out the contact form to ask for more information about how I may be able to help you transform your life from one of being overweight to one of achieving slimness!

The post Struggling with weight loss? appeared first on Maria Furtek Hypnotherapy.

However, rather than putting in all that effort to diet, only to slip back to the old habits and put the weight back on after Summer, the real secret to losing weight, as most of us know, is to eat healthily, and make changes to your eating habits and behaviour . By doing this you ensure the opportunity for long term weight loss and improved health. One of the first things you can do to help you lose weight is to start making small changes to your habits: tweaks! This is far easier than you would think and the best bit is that small tweaks, made consistently, are usually fairly easy to maintain and also will help you to lose those extra pounds.

Below are 5 “tweaks” that you can make right now, right today, and right this week to start your weight loss happening!

1) Watch that Coffee and Tea Intake – How many of you always have to have a couple of biscuits or a piece of cake with your hot drink? This is simply a habit and you actually don’t “have to” have something to accompany your beverage. If you really cannot enjoy your hot drink without something sweet, then you are best advised to tweak this habit by either cutting down on hot drinks and swapping for water (Can you really imagine dunking a chocolate biscuit in your glass of water?) or opt for a herbal drink instead – you are far less likely to want a biscuit with a fruit or peppermint tea!

2)Walk some more -  Now the nicer weather is here, incorporate some exercise into your daily routine. At lunchtime, why not go for a walk in the park or at least around the block? This will clear your head, and if you took a brisk 15 minute walk twice a day that would help you shed a pound in one month!

3) Eat breakfast - A healthy start to the day with a good choice breakfast such as eggs, porridge or fruit will kick start your metabolism and stop you grabbing something unhealthy a little later in the day because you are feeling hungry. One of my Diet Buddy clients has already reported a 2 pound weight loss in week one, from simply starting to eat breakfast everyday!

4) Watch your grazing – If you are a person who likes to snack throughout the day, then be aware of what you are grazing on. If you are constantly reaching for a couple of biscuits, some sweets, a handful of crisps here and there as you go through your day, you will be amazed at how many extra calories you are putting in to your body – AND it is so easy to forget those little extras! One way of gaining awareness is to write down what you are snacking on and then look for some healthier options. Fruit, a small handful of unsalted nuts, or some crudities are all healthier alternatives and far more filling.

5) Reward yourself with health! – If you are someone who eats for reward: perhaps a little something for example for getting through that difficult task, or seeing that challenging client, or for making that sale, or writing that report then you are using food in an unhealthy way. Instead why not reward yourself with a quick walk in the sunshine, a chat to a colleague, or plan two nicer tasks that you enjoy after completing one you don’t . Reward yourself with anything other than food! This habit can often stem from childhood, when for example you have fallen over and hurt yourself and your mum gave you a sweet to cheer you up; or when you were bribed to eat all your greens so that you could have a pudding. You are an adult now, and so you can take back control and ultimately you will be rewarding yourself with better habits and health.

These tweaks are not rocket science, but these small consistent changes will encourage you to think of other habits that are not helping your weight and health. Once you identify these habits you just need to then think of some tweaks you can make so that they become healthier. In this way you will not only be able to fit comfortably into that sleeveless Summer dress, but also that Little black dress at Christmas too!

The post 5 Habit Tweaks for Weight Loss this Summer appeared first on Maria Furtek Hypnotherapy.

Sutton, Surrey Weight Loss Hypnotherapist, Maria Furtek reveals the 5 big weight loss lies that may be making you put on weight, when you are trying to lose it.

The “diet” industry thrives on people’s desperation to lose weight and to have a “quick fix” to do so. However, people then end up with many misconceptions about food and nutrition, which can lead to some very unhealthy and unsuccessful weight loss behaviours if you are trying to lose weight.

As most of us are aware, weight related health issues such as diabetes and  heart disease are on the increase in our society, so it is no wonder that so many people are desperate to lose weight and are drawn in by these “diet” lies! In fact the word diet now conjures up thoughts of deprivation, unrealistic plans that are difficult to follow in our busy lives and feelings of guilt when we fail on these plans.  Below are 5 of the most common “diet” lies that many of my clients have believed prior to working with me on their weight loss.

The 5 Big Fat Diet Lies:

• Skipping meals will help you to lose weight: So many of my clients, prior to seeing me, tell me that they don’t eat breakfast or they skip lunch in order to cut down their calories. This is false economy!  If you’re going through your day without eating, it’s just like a car trying to drive without petrol. What tends to happen when you skip meals is you actually end up eating more: you either snack on unhealthy snacks such as chocolate or crisps, or you tend to over eat at the next meal. Your body thinks that you are trying to starve it, so it will over satiate itself given the chance at the next opportunity to eat.
  
• Healthy eating is boring and very limiting: Many of my clients when they come to see me tell me how much they love food and eating. They then go on to tell me how they have tried cabbage only diets; the grapefruit diet; or diets that restrict most of their favourite foods or diets that involve drinking shakes! For anyone that loves food this is awful! When I work with my clients they are able to discover that healthy eating, where you can eat everything you love in moderation isn’t boring at all.  Healthy eating simply equals choosing and cooking foods that taste good and that are good for your body, mind and wellbeing. Yes you may need to plan your meals and shop for nice food, but this is about changing your habits so that you never need to diet or make certain food off limits ever again!
  
• It’s good for you if it says “low fat”, “low carb”, “low sugar” or “fat free”: This is false. You have to be able to understand food labels correctly in order to choose the right foods. Funnily enough in the 1980’s when most of the faddy diets involved eating fat free food, there was actually a rise in obesity. Most people when they see the words “fat-free” on a label falsely believe it is calorie free or sugar free. Most fat free foods if you look closely at the label are either high in calories, high in sugar or contain nasty chemicals which are not necessarily good for your body. The best advice is to really become familiar with food labels to understand exactly what is in the product per serving.
  
• Healthy foods are more expensive: Healthy food does not have to be more expensive. If you plan y our meals, write and stick to a shopping list, then you will probably save money rather than randomly stocking up on food that you are most likely to throw away. Watch out for special offers and also think about how you could swap foods in a recipe: so if for example a recipe states chicken and this week turkey is on special offer, be flexible and see if you can substitute. Healthier foods are generally less expensive than packaged or processed foods, because you can buy them in bulk and portion them out yourself. There are farmers markets, pick your own places, street markets, that all sell fresh produce at a reasonable price. Adopting a healthy eating strategy is going to be less costly in the long run when you think of paying out for medication in the future, if you don’t do this. Think also what price your healthy and well being is worth!
  
• You should never eat puddings : Depriving yourself of food you love is never going to be sustainable. The more you try not to think about a cream cake the more you will think about it – it’s how the mind works! If  by habit you  eat a rich, fattening pudding every single night, then this is clearly not going to help you shed your extra weight. This is just a habit and it can be changed quite easily. Another option if you really do want a pudding every single night, is to choose a healthy pudding such as fresh fruit or adapting a richer pudding into a more healthy option.

There is really no “sustainable quick fix” to weight loss. In reality to lose weight and keep it off you really need to have the right mindset, a healthy eating strategy and a good relationship with food and eating. If you would like to work towards achieving this for yourself then take a look at the  programme “How to Eat Chocolate and Still Lose Weight” which will help you to transform your eating habits and behaviour, so that you can learn how to eat healthily again, manage your snack attacks and can lose weight without the pain of dieting.

The post 5 Big Fat Weight Loss / Dieting Lies appeared first on Maria Furtek Hypnotherapy.

Easter has gone and hopefully so have all the Easter Eggs and chocolate, which should lessen the temptation to over indulge in a chocolate fest! I’ve had several new clients sign up to my    programme this week. Two of my new diet buddies have said that they have holidays booked for the Summer and now want to concentrate on losing weight in preparation for the beach! They have both said that they want to be slim for summer! Slim is an interesting word that can mean many things to different people. So I thought it would be useful to have a think about what being slim means for you, if you are someone who is wanting to sizzle this summer!

Firstly, slim is not just a number on your scales or that you read in the label of your clothes! It is not about the cover girls on a magazine cover (who are usually airbrushed anyway!), It is not Victoria Beckham, the latest film star or celebrity.

SLIM is personal – it’s unique to each person, it’s being at a weight you feel happy at; it’s being at a weight that is positive for your health and well being, it’s being at a weight where your knees don’t constantly ache; it’s being able to run around after your children without getting breathless! Slim is a healthy weight that you will be able to achieve and maintain!

So with this in mind, let’s get real about your weight loss. Summer is approximately 12 weeks away and in this time you can achieve a short term goal, if you have a lot of weight to lose. However,  what a lot of slimmers do is this:

TRADITIONAL WEIGHTLOSS PROCESS:

1) Decide to slim for Summer

2) Go on a diet and lose some weight

3) Go on holiday and enjoy eating and drinking whilst there (rightly so!)

4) Come back from holiday and stress out about the weight they have put on whilst on holiday

5) Go back on a diet and find it hard to stick to – get miserable- deprive themselves more -  get more frustrated

6) Fall off the diet and end up feeling overweight and mentally beat themselves up!

This type of weight loss does not lead to long term weight loss, in fact it leads to weight gain, misery and a feeling of failure.

My new diet buddies, who have joined the diet buddy on-line programme however, will be learning a new way to lose weight for the Summer and beyond. Their weight loss may go something like this:

  WEIGHT LOSS PROCESS

1) Decide to lose weight for Summer & sign up to the  programme on-line

2) Listen to module 1 and start to think differently about the whole concept of losing weight.

3) Start doing a food diary and reflecting on your habits and behaviour in relation to eating.

4) Start tweaking your habits and behaviour and still have all the foods you love to eat in moderation. Weight starts to reduce slowly and ecologically as you work your way in your own time through the modules

5) Continue working through the 7 modules at your own pace, making changes to your mindset about food, and your behaviour and habits. Lose weight.

6) Go on holiday feeling slimmer and more in control of your eating. Enjoy eating and drinking on holiday. In fact, probably over indulge slightly less because you haven’t felt deprived before you went on holiday.

7) Come back from holiday and realise that you have put on perhaps a few pounds, but be confident in the knowledge that you have all the tools and resources you need to go back to your DIET BUDDY pre-holiday habits and behaviour around food. Re-listen to some of the modules and work through one or two again if needed.

8) Continue to slowly and ecologically shift the holiday weight and perhaps even a few more pounds as you eat normal, healthy food again in moderation.

9) Keep the weight off, knowing if you have any slip ups, you can simply re-vist a diet buddy module or audio again to support you at no additional cost.

Now which slimmer is going to achieve the long term goal of slimness, do you think?

Here are what some of my diet buddies have already shared about the programme:

“I am enjoying my food, snacking sensibly, and feeling less and less hungry in between meals each day. So all in all very happy with myself…
Also would like to say, that making these changes has not been as difficult as I ever imagined, its easy peasy! No more work than doing the food I was doing for the family before!” JC

“I found module 1 to be really insightful, it really helped me by having to think about what i want to achieve and why I want it. I feel like I have cleared my head and I’m ready to go”. VJ

“Managed to lose another 7lbs – going on holiday today – just going to enjoy”. RH

If you would like to find out more about the on-line diet buddy programme and you are wanting to sizzle for Summer, then please take a look here and if you think this could be for you then fill in the contact form or ring me on 020 8395 5471 and I can get you signed up within a few minutes.

The post Sutton, Surrey Weight Loss Hypnotherapist: How to Sizzle this Summer! appeared first on Maria Furtek Hypnotherapy.

Easter is just around the corner, and with it comes the temptation of overindulging on all those choccolaty eggs and Easter treats.

Now as most of you know, as a Weight Loss Hypnotherapist and Coach I do not believe in deprivation or “banning” certain foods or “dieting”. So by all means have a little of what you fancy: that is  normal and absolutely fine. Indeed, even mentally knowing that you have your own permission to have chocolate, or Easter cake or whatever it is for you, psychologically can sometimes just make it easier to have a little and not have to overindulge! However,  what if the temptation of Easter may just become a little too much for you? Are you someone who when faced with copious amounts of chocolate finds that their resolve “to be good” goes out of the window? If this is you, then read on.

If you really want to crack Easter and not sabotage all your weight loss efforts so far, then the tips below are specifically for you:

1) If you know that being bought lots of chocolate at Easter will result in you eating it all yourself and you feel that you won’t be able to control your chocolate intake, then how about asking for alternative Easter presents rather than chocolate eggs? How about some pretty flowers, or plants for the garden? What about a pedicure or manicure voucher, to get your hands and feet looking gorgeous as we are about to start showing them off more when the warmer weather comes!

2) If your family insist on buying you chocolate then share, share, share! Open that big yummy box and take a few that you wish to eat and then keep passing the box around until they are gone!

3) If you are worried about children’s chocolate hanging about well after Easter, set up a children’s chocolate tin, put all the remaining choccie in there and hide it well away from you. Would you really steal chocolate from your kids?

4) Remember that being overweight and having cravings is actually more about what is going on in your head rather than the food itself. So if you find yourself having a mental argument about eating Easter chocolate, have a little bit and see if you feel satisfied. If the answer is no and you are still dying for more (and you are not really hungry) then ask yourself what is this really about? What are you hoping that eating the chocolate will make you feel or what need do you think it will satisfy. Whatever, comes up deal with it in the best way you can, without eating more chocolate!

Now on this note, if you know that you are someone who struggles with their weight; you are fed up with being constantly on and off a diet; you struggle to keep off any weight you lose and end up piling it back on again; that you feel that you have lost sight of what it is to just “eat normally” ; you are constantly telling yourself either that “you must lose weight” or “ the diet starts tomorrow” and you find that you lack the necessary willpower to lose weight, then I would like to introduce you to my new on-line, very affordable coaching programme.

This is the first diet buddies Programme and it is called “How to Eat Chocolate & Still Lose Weight” This on-line programme is going to help you to transform your eating strategy and eating behaviour so that you will lose weight and keep it off in the long term without the pain of dieting. Working through the 7 professional on-line coaching modules at a pace that is right for you will enable you to gain greater awareness of your overweight eating habits, portion sizes and snack behaviour and will give you the self-understanding, tools and resources to make changes to these patterns of behaviour, using NLP and Hypnotherapy to support you.

The benefits of this programme are:

• you can access your modules 24/7 365 days per year at a time that suits you. So if you are a busy person you can work through the programme when your children are in bed, or first thing in the morning or late at night or in your lunch break or whenever is the best time for you. You can access these from any computer with a password and username. You can even access the training on the run, via your mobile phone with internet access.
  
• Once you have made the small investment in this programme, it is yours to keep forever – it is not time limited and you can return to the modules and refresh yourself in the future without any additional payment
• An additional bonus is that you will be given confidential access to the on-line community so that you can “buddy up” with other people on the diet buddy coaching programmes. This enables you to receive additional support and encouragement, post questions, share your learnings and experience and learn from other people working with you on this programme, to lose weight as you will be doing.
• You will also receive support on –line from me through the confidential diet buddy on-line community forum. I can  answer your questions, and check in on my diet buddies regularly to offer support encouragement, additional resources, and share new materials.

Just a one-off investment of only £24.99 will mean that when you join me on this  Coaching Programme How to Eat Chocolate & Still Lose Weight,

you will discover how to:

- Create a flexible eating strategy that enables you to socialise, enjoy life and still shed those extra pounds

- Stop obsessing about “being good” or feeling guilty about being “bad”

- Start working towards transforming your mindset and behaviour around food and food choices

- Get control of your portion sizes

- Create a snack attack button to help you to stop over eating and take back control.

Remember this is a one off investment of only £24.99. There are no additional costs! The beauty of this programme is that you will learn how to eat normally again, and we will work with your mindset, habits and behaviour so that you can lose weight and keep it off in the long term without any more dieting.

For more information, and to purchase this programme, contact me on mfurtek@blueyonder.co.uk or telephone me on 020 8395 5471.

The post How to Crack Easter without Piling on the Pounds appeared first on Maria Furtek Hypnotherapy.

If you just take a stroll through your local town centre on a day during the week, you will notice how many cafe’s, restaurants, and food selling shops there are. More interestingly, you will also probably notice how many people are eating on the run: munching their way through crisps, sweets, and chocolates whilst waiting for a bus, or walking around the shops. Snacking really has become a part of our everyday lives. In fact, having a healthy snack at the right time of day can provide a much needed boost of energy, maybe mid-morning or mid-afternoon, when we most need it but when it is too early to eat a full lunch or dinner.

However, if you are overweight, it may be that your type of snacking is part of the issue and could do with some tweaking. Take the fun quiz below to find out what type of snacker you are and then read the “transformational tips” to help you create a healthy snacking habit!

Take a look at the snack scenarios below and tick all that you do regularly:

A) I regularly skip breakfast and then find myself grabbing whatever  I can find a bit later in the day.

B) When I dish up the kids tea, I often have a little taster myself

C) In the evenings, whilst watching television, I often eat a packet of crisps or some chocolate

A) I often go for long periods of time without eating and then up feeling dizzy or wobbly and need something immediately to eat

B) If someone offers me a sweet I’ll have one

C) During the day I will fancy chocolate or something savoury like crisps or salted nuts

A)I don’t tend to have regular times that I eat in the day

B)At the end of a meal, if anyone has left anything, I may pick at what’s on the plate

C) If I’m not hungry I will still eat a piece of cake

A)I don’t tend to plan ahead regarding food, meals or shopping

B)When walking around the supermarket, if there is a sample to be had, I’ll take what’s on offer

C) After my dinner,even though I am full up,  I often fancy something else to eat

So let’s find out what type of snacker you are and how to tweak your snacking habits to help you lose weight more easily!
If you ticked:

Mostly A’s – You are an Invisible Snacker!
You tend to pick at and eat things which you are not even really aware of eating. That piece of toast your husband left, a few sweets from the kids, the odd biscuit left on a plate after the team meeting or that sample of cheese on the deli in the supermarket. You may either be not fully aware of how these add up during a day or you may be thinking that these bits tend to be small so don’t count! However, all these little snacks add up and do make a difference to your weight. Your first step to changing this is to become more aware of what you are actually putting in your mouth throughout the day. Make a note and see how many snacks you have eaten during the week in this way. Keep a food diary as this will help you see exactly what you are eating and when.

Mostly B’s – You are a Survival Snacker!

You tend to skip meals, be a bit chaotic in your eating strategy, don’t have regular times for eating and go for long periods without food. This leaves your blood sugar levels at an all time low and you starving hungry! In this state, you will just grab whatever you can to boost your sugar levels, get rid of that muzzy feeling in your head, and to stop yourself feeling faint and dizzy. This is an emergency form of eating as your body is crying out for food, so you have to find something quick and easy and usually this will result in unhealthy choices for convenience. You need to start changing this habit by eating regularly and planning ahead. In this way you will create more of an undulating flow in your blood sugar levels and so you won’t end up in that desperate state. Start with having breakfast every day. This kick starts your day and gets your metabolism moving, increases the blood sugar level after an over-night fast. Eating breakfast will increase your ability to concentrate and will set you up to continue your day in the right frame of mind.

Mostly C’s –  You are a Unhealthy Snacker!

You snack not because you are hungry but because you are bored, lonely, to change your focus or because you can! It is a habit for you and you tend to choose comforting, unhealthy snacks which give you a quick fix of feeling good, but then tend to leave you feeling dissatisfied afterwards. You need to change this by planning ahead. Ensuring that you carry healthy snack options with you so that when you need to change pace, or feel like a snack you are boosting your energy and feelings with something healthy that won’t harm your waistline. Prepare some crudities and take them to work with you, get some low fat yoghurts in the fridge, snack on fruit – do your research and find healthier options that you will enjoy. Also it is worth looking at your snacking habit to learn different ways to manage your boredom, loneliness, need to change the pace, so that you are not constantly resorting to food.

Now if any of the above resonates with you, or you feel that snacking is definitely part of your weight problem and you are not enjoying looking at the end results, then you may want to consider signing up for my low cost on-line coaching programme called “How to Eat Chocolate & Still Lose Weight!” One of the seven coaching modules in this programme, covers the whole area of snacking and how to transform your snacking habits so that you can lose weight and achieve the body you desire. More details will be following in the next few weeks. But if you would like further information about this effective way of losing weight then do contact me on mfurtek@blueyonder.co.uk

The post What Type of Snacker are You? appeared first on Maria Furtek Hypnotherapy.

Well basically it means two things:

1) Slowing your eating right down and actually chewing your food and

2) Paying attention to what you are eating, not focusing on anything else or being distracted.

For many people who are overweight, it is so easy to rush through meals, eat whilst on the go or whilst engaging in some other activity and then not actually realise exactly what you have put in your mouth or how much! When you eat like this you are not paying attention to what you are doing and you cannot hear your own body’s signal to tell you that you are full up! So what happens is that you don’t know how much you have eaten and your eating becomes out of control and you probably end up overeating.

Now the 5 tips that I am going to share with you today will help you to start eating more mindfully but my Diet Buddy Programme “How to Eat Chocolate and Still Lose Weight” will take you through a whole mindful eating process that you can easily adopt into your daily life, to support you in getting the results that you desire for your weight loss. If you would like more information about this very affordable, habit changing, on-line coaching programme, then do contact me at mfurtek@blueyonder.co.uk

In the meantime, you can start the process of eating more mindfully right now with these 5 mindful eating tips:

• Slow down your eating. Put your knife and fork down between mouthfuls and chew your food at least 20 times before swallowing.When you give yourself a chance to eat slowly, you actually get a chance to notice and enjoy your food a lot more.
• Tune in to your feelings: Eating is a way to get a quick “feel good “fix for many of you. However, if you reach for foods that are unhealthy too much of the time, you will probably end up feeling a sense of instant gratification, followed by a feeling of disappointment or guilt. Next time you get the urge to eat for comfort, tune in to how you are feeling first and see if there is another alternative to dealing with your feelings other than reaching for that big slice of cake that you don’t really want!
• Lower stress: Stress hormones often stimulate the appetite and at the same time the stress hormone cortisol encourages the body to store fat, especially around the middle of your body. Try to keep your stress levels from increasing by practising meditation or breathing exercises. Physical exercise is also a good remedy for managing stress.
• Disconnect the distractions: It’s important to actually engage in the whole process of eating and paying attention to what you are eating. If you are watching television or eating whilst working on your computer, your focus of attention is on that rather than your food. Turn off the TV and step away from your computer. If you eat at your desk at work, you are more likely to snack later in the day.
• Concentrate on your food: focus on the activity of actually eating. Notice how much food is on your plate; notice how it tastes in your mouth; notice how you feel as you eat your food. Are there tastes that you don’t like? If you can, sit down at a table to eat and do this regularly. Training yourself that this is the place to eat ie at a table, will help you to stop grazing throughout the day.

You will be amazed at how these easy steps will transform your eating and it’s worth really putting these into practise. Remember you are in the process of creating a new habit and it will take some repetition. You may want to bear this in mind: the more you pay attention to your food, the more you enjoy it, the more satisfied you will feel and so you will eat less and the result is that you will feel full, enjoy what you are eating without deprivation and lose weight!

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The reality is that if you keep on top of your portion sizes, it’ll be easier to stay on schedule with your weight loss. Remember this is not about deprivation, but more about “ a little of what you fancy is fine, some of the time!”

These tips will help you to start getting the measure of your portions:

• Use smaller plates or bowls to downsize your portions and notice how you feel when you have finished your meal. Are you satisfied, are you stuffed or could you manage a little more. If the latter answer is true wait for 15 minutes at least and check in with your feeling of satiety then. If you still feel hungry, then you know that next time you need to fill your plate a little more or use a slightly bigger plate of bowl.
• Only cook the amount you need at mealtimes.  Ensure that you freeze, refrigerate, give away or bin any leftovers. You are not a dustbin and all left overs do not need to be eaten by you on the same day!
• Do not eat anything whether it is chocolates, crisps, biscuits etc straight from the packet. Your mind will try and convince you to eat the whole amount. Instead, take out a portion of what you are going to eat, put that on a plate or in a bowl and put the rest away.
• If you can, buy food that is already divided up into portions for you. (Some biscuits for example come in packs of two or three as a portion, so it’s easy to see what a portion should be) If this is not possible, then portion your food yourself. Divide up you favourite treats into some little bags for a single portion or put into containers. You are less likely to take out 10 portions of something and munch through them, but if they are left in their entirety you will have no bench mark of where to stop and could easily end up eating your way through a whole massive bag of say treats before you have even registered what you are doing!

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1. Chew it over! How easy is it to wolf your food down without even registering what you have eaten or how much. Chewing your food properly allows your body to register exactly what it is doing and for gives your body time to register and acknowledge its own satiety signals to alert you that you are feeling full. You need to chew each mouthful about 15-20 times before swallowing to activate these internal signals.
2. Keep Hydrated. Carry a bottle of water with you at all times and sip it throughout the day. Being hydrated ensures that your body will run more effectively and it also helps you to feel more full up. Having a big glass of water before a meal will help you to avoid over-eating.
3. Become a sole eater. Eating with other people means you will probably eat  more because you are less likely to pay attention to what you are eating and more likely to be talking. When eating with others, you are likely to  eat 75% more than you normally would. In addition, you are more likely to drink more alcohol if dining with others who are drinking. And as you are probably aware alcohol is really liquid calories. Save it for those special occasions!
4. Adopt the 80/20 principle. When it comes to food intake, aim to stick to a ratio of about 80/20. Eating healthy and regularly 80% of the time and spending 20% of your time eating “treats” will avoid huge fluctuations in weight and your body will adapt to this natural way of eating. This is on the whole how naturally “slim” people consume their food. They eat when they are hungry and most of the time eat healthy nutritious food, allowing themselves the odd treat when they fancy it.
5. Be honest with yourself. It is easy and a common thing to underestimate how much you eat. We forget about the two or three biscuits we had in the morning and delete that square of choclate or piece of cake in the afternoon! Doing this could add up to an average weight gain of one pound every two weeks. Be honest – don’t cheat yourself. The best way to avoid this cheating habit is to write down what exactly has passed your lips.

If you are struggling with losing weight and fed up with dieting, then there are alternative ways which embody the ideas above. My on-line diet buddy programmes are affordable, and easily accessible. The first programme is “How to eat chocolate and still lose weight!” and is available now. For an investment of only £19.99 you will get access to  7 coaching modules which will enable you to transform your eating habits; will show you how to adopt the 80/20 eating strategy mentioned above so that you can lose weight without having to diet. If you like the sound of this and would like to see less of yourself in the mirror, feeling lighter and slimmer then contact me on either 020 8395 5471 or email me at mfurtek@blueyonder.co.uk

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