My Resolutions for 2012

I'm feeling unusually glum today. Despite my glass half full nature, I always make an effort to and see the positive in thing. I've read a lot of interesting and inspiring posts over the last couple of days (Tali's post on Glossy's Wardrobe and Everyday Beauty in particular spring to mind) so, although I am feeling a bit down in the dumps and disappointed in myself, I know I can turn it around and learn from my mistakes. I don't normally make New Year's resolutions but it feels like the right thing to do his year.

Healthy 2012: The main source of glum today is my weight. I realise now that I really shouldn't have let my lack of weight loss on the scales bother me. I feel at my heaviest right now and I KNOW I've put on weight over Christmas; my clothes feel tighter and I can see it in the mirror. Yet the scales haven't budged at all. I think it's time to give up taking any notice of what the scales say and get back on track with the Slimpod. I really enjoyed doing more exercise and I'd like to keep that up. I want to focus on improving my eating habits too. To this end I'm going to set myself a challenge to routinely get my five a day. Shamefully my fruit and veg consumption has reached an all time low and increasing my intake will no doubt help with achieving a healthier body.

The Domestic Goddess Challenge: Now, I will admit that I'm not a natural when it comes to all things domestic. I used to be a devotee of FlyLady for keeping the house tidy but between looking after my three children and blogging, polishing the skirting boards and dusting has taken a bit of a back seat! It's not just the cleaning that needs to be tackled. We've been in our current house for over eighteen months and I definitely need to devote more time to adding those extra touches that turn a house into a home. It's a shame that I don't find interior decorating quite as enjoyable as choosing cosmetics.

My husband does a lot of the cooking for us but I'm keen to start injecting a bit more variety into our mealtimes. I think this might be Twitters influence at work. I'm not a great cook but I think it would be fun to try at least one new recipe a week. I may even blog about things that turns out particularly well. At the top of my list of things to try are the Moroccan spiced dishes that The Non-Blonde's husband shared here and the delicious sounding cod and chorizo dish that Helen of Just Nice Things has tweeted about.

A Better Blog/Life Balance: There are so many things I don't do as much as I would like to or used to. I have a stack of books building up that I want to read and there is always a list of films that I have yet to watch. In order to find the time to do all these things, as well as the cooking, cleaning and exercise, I need to decrease the amount of time I sit at the computer a little (okay, maybe a lot but these are baby steps!). This doesn't necessarily mean fewer posts but I may continue to add more variety. It's fun to write about different things every so often and I have learned about much more than makeup from my favourite beauty bloggers.

And with that, I shall stop. It has been cathartic to write this post and I already feel more positive about the New Year ahead. Here's a little something sunny so that we end on a cheery note.

Have you set yourself any resolutions for the New Year? Are you looking forward to a fresh start in 2012?

Thinking Slimmer Update

I started the Thinking Slimmer programme 8 number of weeks ago and although I'm reluctant to do an update, I think it's important to share. I'd really seen a big change to my behaviour, both in terms of my eating and the urge to exercise. I felt very positive when I wrote my initial post here. I felt better in myself but I saw no change on the scales. I tried to ignore the lack of change on the scales but after about six weeks with practically no change left me feeling disheartened. I should say I was only weighing myself once a week not obsessively checking everyday.

Once the negativity started creeping in, I found myself listening to the Slimpod less and the old ways have started to return. I've not done any exercise for a couple of weeks either. I've felt less able to ignore the Christmas goodies. Consequently, I feel disappointed in myself for failing to stick to it.

I'm determined not to let things get completely out of control. I'm not sure whether Thinking Slimmer will ultimately be the right thing for me but I've downloaded the free Christmas Slimpod to see if I can prevent myself from going overboard with festive eating and drinking. If you're interested in giving the Slimpod a try, it's worth downloading the free Christmas Slimpod from their Facebook page (all you need to do is Like their Facebook page and you will be offered the link for the free download).

I'm going to re-evaluate things in the New Year and decide whether to carry on with Slimpod or whether I need to return to more traditional dieting methods. I really like how Thinking Slimmer got me exercising again and stopped me eating for the sake of it but I know to stay motivated I need to see results. I keep wondering if setting myself a specific fitness goal or even training for a particular event might keep me on the straight and narrow? I have a school reunion next summer (it will be 20 years since we left school next year, nothing like a 20 years anniversary to make you feel ancient) and vanity says I would like to look my best for that!

Do you find it a struggle to stick to healthy eating over the festive period?


Disclosure: I received my original Slimpod as a PR sample. The desire to lose weight is all my very own!

Thinking Slimmer: The Beginning

I've put off writing about this for a couple of weeks. Partly because I'm nervous about how it will be received and also because it can difficult to expose yourself for fear you might not succeed. But share I will and if you're not interested in chatter about weight loss, I will forgive you if you choose not to read on. There will be more makeup talk very soon, I promise.

I have done a lot of diets in my life. Some have been successful and some have not. I find that some diets suit me more than others; I have returned to Slimming World many times as it tends to give me steady, sustainable weight loss. I tried the Dukan diet earlier this year and it did indeed work. The weight came off quickly but the diet itself was punishing and didn't fit in with my lifestyle or my mostly meat-free eating habits! Needless to say the weight went back on. No matter how good a diet is, the key to whether it works for me is whether or not I'm in the right place mentally to commit to it and I had been struggling with that a lot recently.

Now, I know that the way to lose weight is to eat less and move more. I am a woman of science and logic so I'm not blind to the fact that if I eat more calories than I burn then I'm going to put weight on. I do think it's very easy to say it's simple if you're someone who has never had issues with weight or an emotional attachment to food. No matter how much I want to lose weight and know how to do it, I often find that I will sabotage my own efforts when I reach for food as comfort or a reward.

I first heard about Thinking Slimmer on Twitter. I thought it sounded interesting so did a little investigating. Thinking Slimmer is a system for weight loss that uses the power of the mind rather than traditional calorie counting. Having tried to explain it to people I know it can provoke quizzical looks. Use the expression Wordweaving and you can sound a bit like you've embraced a new cult! I don't really think it's as strange an idea as it may first sound though. I know that my bad eating habits are probably psychological and so tackling my response to food and my behaviour towards it seems to make sense.

Anyway, I'll hurry it along now as I'm starting to ramble. Thinking Slimmer uses what they call Slimpods to help you lose weight. Slimpods are voice recordings which you listen to each evening (you can listen on your iPod, hence the name) and use unconscious persuasion techniques to retune the way you feel about food. Basically, these recordings are retraining my mind to think of food as fuel and not a way to reward myself or cheer myself up. I have been listening to my Slimpod daily for 18 days now and whilst I haven't registered a loss on the scales yet (not helped by the fact that I didn't buy a pair of scales until after I started), I have noticed some major changes in my habits.

My motivational images

The things that have changed so far:
I don't really think about food between meals, so I've not been snacking.
I'm reaching for better food without really thinking about it.
I'm not obsessing about food - something I always do on a diet.
I often feel full before I've finished what's on my plate and I won't feel I have to keep on eating.
I actually feel hungry at meal times. I'm ashamed to admit that I would eat at meal times whether hungry or not.

But the one change that I really want to make a song and dance about is that I am exercising again. Regularly. I have been making excuses not to do my exercise videos for about 8-9 years. In fact, it's so long since I've done any formal exercise that my videos really are videos! I've had to plug in a VCR specially just to watch them. I've done exercise in the evening, I've done it in the day, I've even done it barefoot as I don't want to let the excuse of having no trainers stop me! So, although the scales says nothing has changed yet, my body feels different and I know if I keep up the exercise big things will change. I'm actually wondering if I should set my myself a specific challenge so that I can motivate myself even more with the exercise. Buying some DVDs would probably be a start.....

Even my exercise videos are vintage!

It's hard to say whether all of this is unconscious change or whether some of it is conscious. I feel like it might actually be a mixture of the two. Certainly the Thinking Slimmer team suggest that it works better if you believe it will work. I shall leave it at that for today and I will keep you updated with how I get on over the next couple of months. In the meantime, if you would like more information about the system I can recommend browsing the Thinking Slimmer website. I'm happy to chat about it in the comments or via email or Twitter if you have any specific questions you want to ask me.


Disclosure: I received the Slimpod recordings without charge. The opinions in this post are entirely my own and the links are provided for information only.