Reset from Diet Failures

Everyone fails and if you don’t fail, then you’re probably not human. Diet failures happen for many different reasons. Sometimes, it’s your fault, but other times, it could be the fault of the diet you chose.

Failures can be as short as messing up your eating plan for an hour or two. The failure might last for a day or a week or a month. Or maybe you’re someone who failed and you’ve been stuck on that path for years.

The good news is that none of that means your diet wishes are permanently gone. You can start again the very second you make the decision to change your life.

What’s Behind the Failure?

Whenever you fail at anything, including a diet, there is always an underlying reason. Once you figure out the reason, that’s when you can change it and find success.

There are some pretty common reasons why people experience diet failure. It usually starts because there’s no planning. Other than a desire to lose weight and you can picture your end goal, you don’t really have a map or plan on how you’re going to get from point A to B.

Another reason is because your short term goals aren’t reasonable. You’ve set the bar too high and can’t reach them – so when you fail in the beginning, it can cause discouragement.

This can make you more reluctant to get back on the diet. The first week is when most diets ultimately fail and nine times out of ten it’s because the short term goals are the culprit.

If you have an “everything and the kitchen sink” mentality toward dieting, then that can also set the stage for failure. This is what happens when you try to make too many changes all at one time, like thinking you’ll completely clean out the pantry and toss everything that you deem unhealthy for you.

Completely overhauling the way you eat all at once makes a diet unappealing. Maybe you’ve started your diet out with an eating plan that’s so strict, you haven’t budgeted anything in there that’s familiar.

So you’ve tossed all of the regular food and replaced it with an eating plan that’s too limited. Then, you decide that the only beverage you’ll consume is water. That you’ll workout every single day. For at least half an hour. No, wait. An hour.

Longer is better, right? When enthusiasm for your body to change overrides your ability to stick to it, your motivation goes down the drain. You can’t count on sheer force of will to keep you fired up enough to carry on with your diet when you’ve overwhelmed yourself with too many changes at the same time.

Signs You’re Headed Toward Diet Failure

There are warning signs with every diet that can tell you if it’s going to be successful or not. Instead of finding that you feel much better eating this new way, you discover that you feel a lot worse.

Your diet is too over the top with its limitations. You’ve cut your food choices down to items that are foreign to you as well as unappetizing. This level of strictness will cause you to quit pretty fast because no one wants to eat things they don’t like regardless of how well motivated you might be.

From the beginning of your diet and on, you’ve battled constant hunger. Diets are supposed to let you feel that hunger. It means it’s working right? Wrong. It’s a myth that far too many believe that any diet you undertake should leave you feeling hungry even right after you finish a meal.

The truth might shock you. A diet that’s healthy and based on your calorie needs should actually keep you feeling full throughout the day. Even a diet that’s portion controlled shouldn’t leave you feeling hungry.

If it does, then you’re eating the wrong things. Cravings that just don’t stop can be a sign that you’re heading toward diet failure. Most cravings for foods that aren’t healthy will end once your body adjusts to eating better.

But the biggest mistake that you can make is to try to keep plugging along with the cravings nipping at your heels. The desire for that particular food will only grow stronger on some diets because the body goes into a sense of deprivation.

Your mind thinks that the body will always be deprived of that food because the word diet is symbolic with doing without. Your diet needs to have a craving allowance built in.

You let yourself eat a controlled portion of the food that you like and you don’t assign any one food to never-again land. Have it and enjoy it, just be wise about it.

Another sign that you’re heading toward diet failure is if you’re someone who practices emotional eating. Dieting is not going to make those emotions feel better.

In fact, if you’re an emotional eater and you suddenly limit all the foods you used to self-comfort, you’re going to feel worse. For those who use food to deal with emotions, you must find a way to handle your feelings as you’re dieting.

This way, you’re not essentially starving the emotional component of yourself. When you treat the need behind emotional eating, you’ll find that your dieting motivation is stronger.

Having a lot of peer pressure is another sign you might be headed toward diet failure. These come at you from well meaning (though sometimes not) people who tell you go ahead and splurge – that you deserve it.

They tell you things like you look good just as you are, that you’re really fine overweight and as you to come celebrate by overeating with them. If you are someone who knows you give in to peer pressure in other ways, it could be easier for you to give in to diet peer pressure.

The Role of Shame in Dieting

You might be aware of this or you might not be. But the odds are high that you engage in diet shaming. And shaming isn’t something that can be successfully used to lose weight or keep it off.

Some common diet shaming things that you might have said to yourself include internal comments about your meals. “Oh, I was a total pig. I ate all the wrong stuff today.”

It might be about your physical appearance. “I hate to walk past others in a restaurant. Everyone is thinking about how fat I am.” Or maybe you’ve internalized shame about how your body looks to the point that you’re too uncomfortable to eat a meal in a restaurant.

Maybe you order the food to go and eat in your car. Saying unkind things when you eat and hiding out when you eat is shaming yourself. Some people get stuck in this rut, not realizing the damage that it does.

They don’t know that shaming keeps them stuck in diet failure. Shaming yourself isn’t self acceptance. It’s not loving who you are, failures and all. At its core, diet shaming is a sense of self-hatred for how you eat, what your body looks like and what you perceive as an inability to change anything.

This keeps you feeling powerless when the truth is that you do have the power to change. You’ve always had it, but maybe you just haven’t understood how to use that power.

When a failure happens, don’t blame yourself. You’re a human being. That means that you have flaws, you’ll make mistakes and that it is perfectly natural to do that.

You have to stop blaming and shaming yourself when a diet doesn’t work out. So you failed. Big deal. It doesn’t mean the world is going to end because this diet didn’t work out.

And it doesn’t matter if it was your first diet or your hundred and first diet. The shame is not yours to take on. When you allow shame to have a hold on your diet process, it will kick your butt every time you look in the mirror.

You’ll despise your image. You won’t want to do anything to make a change. You won’t love and accept yourself. Worst of all, when you give shame room within your diet failure, it always spreads.

It will transfer to other areas of your life.

Begin Again Without Shame

Whether you’ve failed once or hundreds of time, the blame is still not yours to carry. When you experience shame after a failed diet, check out what’s going on in your thought process and in your feelings.

If you do that, you’ll see that shame means that you feel unworthy or inferior. But that feeling doesn’t make it the truth. You feel the shame or the unworthiness or inferiority because you’ve been taught that there should be shame when you fail.

Failure should always be seen as an opportunity inviting you to try something different rather than the final say in any situation. The feelings of shame when it comes to diet failures are caused because you feel inferior to the standards that were placed on you by others such as people or businesses.

You’re taught that you’re inferior if you’re overweight and if you fail in your quest for the “perfect body” it means you’re unworthy and you’re flawed. It might surprise you to learn the reason that shame doesn’t belong to you is because you’re not the problem.

The diet is. Less than 10% of all diets work. Yet, they’re so popular. They’re popular because the sheer amount of people seeking to lose weight and the constant bombardment from the media about the perfect body has given rise to a dieting industry that makes billions of dollars every year.

Shaming is a tool that many of the diet businesses will use to try and get you to purchase what they’re selling. So you do. Then you feel shame when you don’t achieve the results you wanted.

Stop focusing on diet and instead focus your attention on healthy eating. Focus on giving your body the food that it deserves for a long and healthy life. Prepare meals that nurture your body.

Eat in a way that works for your body regardless of what others are doing. So how can you start again without shame? Don’t do the same things you’ve always done.

You’ll end up with the same result – feeling shamed when it doesn’t work out. Instead, choose a different method than what you’ve always done. If you tried hard with a strict diet and you exercised until you loathed that word, then don’t do that anymore.

Choose a diet that’s not strict. Pick actions that move your body to burn calories in a way that’s fun – in a way you look forward to. Put falling off the wagon into perspective.

It was a sign that something wasn’t working with your diet plan. Adjust whatever led to the fall. Fix it, change it, do something new. But if you can’t because it was just that you got sick of dieting that led to your failure, then mentally and emotionally wipe the slate clean.

Don’t allow yourself any internal name calling, no bringing up past mistakes. This is a brand new journey with no baggage.

Moving Forward Without Fear of Failure

When people fail at dieting, they tend to be wary. They struggle with the thought of getting back on the wagon – the very thing that they fell off of. The psychology behind the wariness is easily understood.

Risk is uncomfortable and often, it’s far more uncomfortable than the familiar feelings of shame. And people don’t like to be uncomfortable. Risk means leaving the comfort zone.

But you can move forward without fear of failure. Motivate yourself with plenty of successes right from the start. You can do that by creating a list with small, easily achieved steps on it.

Every day, write down five things that you can do that promote success. This might be something like eating a piece of fruit for a snack rather than the gooey cake you’d rather take instead.

As you check off each thing that you accomplish this way, you’ll feel more empowered. Realize that if you’ve experienced shame or body limitations because of your weight or health problems, then where you were can be a worse place than failure.

You deserve to love and accept yourself. You’re worthy of moving forward. Acknowledge each victory, regardless of how small you might think it is. A victory can be something like you took the stairs instead of the elevator.

You went for a walk at lunch time instead of hanging out in the break room. Give yourself grace. Being tempted isn’t a failure. Having to start over again isn’t a failure.

This means that negative self-talk is forbidden. You won’t speak to yourself unless it’s with love and kindness. You will say and think the things that edify you.

Give yourself patience. If you lose the weight more slowly than you like, that’s okay. There is no diet race. There is only healthy living and loving yourself. It doesn’t matter if someone else can lose weight faster.

They’re not you. They don’t have your circumstances. They don’t have your ups or downs. Recognize that failure is about perspective. It only means you experienced a temporary setback.

It’s a winding curve in the road that will loop you back to the beginning, but it’s not the end of the road. Keep your eyes on where you want to end up, not on the roadblocks that will sometimes slow you down. You will get around them. You will succeed.

A Guide to Group Fitness

Many studies have shown that focusing on fitness – regardless of how much you weigh – is necessary to lower your health risks. Yet, it’s easier to focus on the weight loss rather than the fitness aspect of dieting.

The reason is because losing weight is a personal journey. But there are a number of benefits when you engage in group fitness, on both a physical and mental level.

Losing Weight Is Easier With Support

When it comes to losing weight and getting fit, it’s always better to have support rather than to try to go it alone. You don’t have to get involved in a large group if you’re the kind of person who likes to keep things low key.

But it’s important that you have someone in your life who is on the same journey to fitness that you are. Statistics have repeatedly shown that people who use the fitness buddy system end up not only losing weight and getting fit faster, but they tend to keep it off long term.

Having someone who understands what you’re experiencing helps with discouragement. Being able to share the journey keeps your motivation strong. It also keeps you on track because you’ll quit on you before you’ll quit on someone else.

That’s just human nature. We hate to disappoint other people much more than we hate disappointing ourselves. Losing weight and getting fit with the help of a buddy system is easier, too – because we tend to talk ourselves into things that aren’t good for us if it’s something we want.

This includes things like deciding that we need to blow off eating healthy because we’ve worked hard all week. A diet and fitness buddy will be there to help you through those times when you’re rationalizing taking steps that can potentially derail your success.

Having someone in your corner can make exercising more fun. You’ll look forward to the social connection. Support means that you have someone who can help keep you in check when you’re exercising to make sure you’re not overdoing it or that your body is properly aligned when you’re working out on the machines at the gym.

When you have someone to help support your weight loss and fitness efforts, you’ll discover that you’re challenging yourself to work out harder and longer than you would if you were trying to do it on your own.

Having someone else along on the same journey not only helps give you support but opens up a bit of a competitive drive within you. It’s part of human nature to want to compete to be the best at what you’re doing when you’re engaging in the same physical activity with someone else.

When you share a weight loss and fitness journey with an accountability partner, you’ll see that losing weight and getting in shape can become something to look forward to that’s much easier than it has been in the past.

What to Look For in an Accountability Partner

When you’re looking for an accountability partner, the first thing you need to check is that the other person is truly committed to getting into shape. A lot of people talk about making changes but don’t actually perform any action that will lead to weight loss or getting fit.

You should be up front with whoever you decide to walk the fitness journey with. The level of commitment needs to be the same for both of you. Whoever you have as a partner needs to be someone that you can trust.

Having a fitness partner requires honesty and if there’s no trust, you won’t ever feel truly comfortable with that person. It’s a good idea to discuss what you can and can’t do with the person and you need to set boundaries so that each of you knows what to expect.

You might want to go ahead and plan out how often you’ll meet to talk and for exercise. Deciding whether or not you want to set up time for phone encouragement sessions or email discussions is also important.

When you coordinate your time right from the beginning, then the relationship gets off to a positive start. You should also set up what types of challenges you’re looking for and what kind of feedback.

Discuss what you need to hear when you do have fall off the wagon. When you do find someone who helps you with your fitness goals, there are certain things that can help make the relationship a successful one.

That success is found in what you discuss with the other person. You do need to be as open and as up front as you feel comfortable being. You should discuss your weight loss goals.

Mention how much you want to lose and your motivation behind it. You want to do this because then your accountability partner has the knowledge to be able to help keep you motivated.

He or she can remind you of your goal to lose weight for health reasons or for bikini season. Whatever the reason, the other person can act as someone who can nudge you closer to your long term goal.

Another thing you’ll want to discuss are the roadblocks that have always been in your way before when you’ve tried to lose weight and get fit. If your accountability partner knows up front that you find it harder to work out after you have a stressful day at work, then he or she will be able to help push you through that block.

Sometimes, all it takes is for someone else to tell you that you can do it and that you’ll feel better for your mindset to change. Instead of going home and sitting in front of the television to destress, you’ll find that your accountability partner has motivated you to head to the gym instead.

Discussing what things in your lifestyle try to hinder you from reaching your goals can help your accountability partner be able to openly discuss ways that you can work around those hindrances.

When you’re working with an accountability partner, you also want to discuss challenges. Find out how you can challenge each other to push harder to reach levels you never have before.

You should talk about what fitness levels you’re hoping to reach so that the other person knows when to spur you forward in a workout. An accountability partner doesn’t have to be in real life.

You can find one online and there are pros and cons to both. For an accountability partner that’s in real life, it can be more social. You can meet up for face-to-face time.

You have the benefit of socializing and getting encouragement in real time. This doesn’t always happen when the other person is an online accountability partner because if they’re not online, then you won’t have that support available.

When you’re feeling like you’re about to fall off the fitness wagon, you can call a real life accountability partner and ask to meet up for a workout. But having support online can be equally beneficial to some people.

This is especially true if you’re an introvert and you find it difficult to be open when you’re faced with someone in real life. Online accountability partnerships offer a degree of separation that some people prefer.

Plus, you might find it easier to talk to someone who isn’t in your immediate social circle. The upside to having a real life accountability partner is that you’re less likely to want to let them down than you would someone online.

It’s also easier to be more competitive and challenge yourself in real life than online. An online accountability partner can make it easier for your goals to become more concrete and for you to get a visual for tracking your progress.

As you type out your messages back and forth, you’ll have a record of how well you’re doing and you’ll be able to see how you sound – whether you sound upbeat or discouraged.

Sometimes, seeing something written out makes it easier for you to recognize what needs to change so that you can stay motivated. The connection to an accountability partner who is online can sometimes actually be stronger than one in real life because people tend to put aside their masks when they’re online.

There can be a lowering of the guard with someone else when there’s a screen between the two of you. It can be easier to vent your weight loss or fitness frustrations to an online accountability partner when you might hold back with someone who’s in real life.

The Person to Avoid Choosing for Your Accountability Partner

It can be tempting to ask a close friend or a family member to be your accountability partner. But although that person might love you and want the best for you, sometimes they just don’t make the best accountability partner.

The reason is because they’re often too easy on you, too willing to help to de-motivate you by telling you that everything is fine, that you look fine, that skipping your healthy eating plan or fitness routine is no big deal because they love you just as you are.

While that’s sweet, it’s not the kind of thing that you need. Your friends and family won’t often give you the butt kicking that you need to stay on track. They won’t actually hold you accountable and tell you that you can do better, that you made certain goals and need to stick to them.

In other words, they let you off easy. When that happens, it’s easy to chill out than to work out. It’s not always best to make your spouse your accountability partner because it can be too easy to either let one another slide with goals or to get upset with each other.

You don’t want your fitness journey to cause tension at home when someone gets upset or frustrated with the other person. You also want to avoid people who tell you the truth but aren’t compassionate about it.

You do need to be held accountable but you don’t need to be sliced and diced either. If someone rips you to shreds and makes you feel like scum, that’s not helpful.

You should avoid choosing the person who uses put downs or makes fun of other people when they make a mistake. They’ll do the same to you when you have a setback.

While it’s always helpful to find an accountability partner who also wants to lose weight, you don’t want to partner with someone who’s a downer. Hearing someone say, “I’ll never lose this weight” or, “working out is just too hard” will eventually wear on you.

When you’re with someone who is a downer, you rarely pull them up emotionally. Instead, they end up making you feel worse. Skip partnering with a rationalizer. This is the type of partner who can always find a way to get out of eating healthy and working out.

They say they need to skip eating healthy because they had a hard day. Or they can’t work out because they don’t feel like it and they say they want to get fit, but they spend more time talking about it than actually doing anything about it.

Your accountability partner must be motivated and determined to get fit. Otherwise, it won’t be a beneficial relationship for you. You also want to avoid the sabotager.

This is the accountability partner who encourages you to blow your diet or skip the workout to go do something “fun.” You’ll find that they undermine you. They’re always pointing out what else you could be doing or tempting you to make bad choices.

Get Involved in a Big Group Fitness Program

While having an accountability partner has been shown to be a successful way to stick to your fitness goals, you shouldn’t overlook big group fitness programs either.

These work because you gain the team mentality when you work out with a group. Plus, people who work out in a group fitness program are more likely to exercise more often each week than people who aren’t involved in group fitness.

There is power and plenty of challenges to be found when you’re working out with a group of people. That’s one of the reasons why things like Zumba have become so popular.

When you’re surrounded by large groups of people who are doing the same thing, it’s easier to stay motivated not only during the workout – but it keeps your motivation level high during the week.

You look forward to meeting up with the class or program again. There are groups that are decided to fitness such as hiking groups. You get to work on your fitness while exploring new areas with people who all have the same goal.

Dance exercise classes are an extremely popular fitness program because they’re social, fun and give you a great workout. When people interact with others in a positive way, the brain releases endorphins.

Social interaction like this that causes the endorphin levels to rise makes you feel happier and associate working out as something pleasurable. Working out with a group of people helps you see that you’re not alone.

Regardless of how you feel when you arrive, you leave feeling motivated and full of energy. Bonding over a common goal takes place in a group setting and that can raise the accountability level.

More people will notice if you’re not there. The instructor gets used to seeing your face and people will question your absence when you return. You gain friends through group fitness programs and many of these people end up doing activities together beyond the fitness class.

This builds your social circle of like minded people who help you stay on target even when you’re not working out. The bond that carries over from being in a group together makes it easier to make smart choices when you go out to eat with people who want what you want.

The Importance of Posture

Good posture is directly related to good health. It’s as simple as that. Better still, by maintaining good posture, one’s muscles, bones and ligaments function cohesively for a healthy and long life. With proper alignment, this also ensures that all the organs in the body work properly too.

Conversely, bad posture tends to have the opposite effects, with the current emphasis on ergonomics.

The most plausible reason for this attention is that since people who spend their time in an office have been known to end up with back pain and/or carpal tunnel syndrome. So, yet again, the importance of posture, which is one of the leading causes of back pain, cannot be understated.

But before we delve into this aspect of the importance of a good posture, let’s first define what a good posture is.

Posture is considered to be alignment and positioning of one’s body in respect to gravity. Good posture ensures that the force of gravity acts on all parts of our body evenly. This doesn’t happen when we have a bad posture and so can cause numerous problems.

And almost immediately one can see the benefits of maintaining a good posture, no matter whether it pertains to standing, sleeping, walking or sitting – especially when it has been documented that you can lose almost 10 pounds in weight (if you’re overweight) just by maintaining a good posture.

Yet there are other benefits that will make clear how important it is to maintain a good posture at all times.

Better posture almost immediately reduces the possibility of injury and thus, improves overall physical performance, balance and agility. Since the maintaining of the right posture is also a big point to be noted in exercise, recovery from the muscle soreness of physical exertion is much better when one is able to maintain good posture throughout the routine.

What makes the importance of posture even more apparent is the fact that good posture not only increases lung volume, it also strengthens our muscles and bones. Yet it’s not just the upper body that benefits but also our extremities as well.

The lower back, hips and knees are also affected by the uneven distribution of gravitational pressure and can sometime leads to arthritis, bone spurs and fractures – since it wears down the bones and cartilage in our feet and also increases wear and tear on our lower back and hips.

If you aren’t sure whether you are maintaining the right posture or feel the need to correct your posture, taking the advice of a fitness professional in the form of exercise can quickly adjust that.

But no matter what: maintaining the right posture is vital to a longer and healthier life.

Click here to learn more about the brand new UPRIGHT trainer that could solve your posture problems once and for all!

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3 top ways to reduce everyday stress

Learning how to deal with stress is something that everybody needs to know. Even our health can suffer the effects of stress which can also make it difficult to think clearly enough to solve even the simplest task. The good news is that there are simple easy techniques for reducing your stress which we will cover here in this article.

As more studies show the link between stress and many health problems, stress management becomes an important consideration for many people. These 3 top stress management ways can help you to reduce the levels of stress in your life, so make good use of them.

Massage

Go get a massage, this is the first method for reducing and managing stress levels. Massage has often been thought of as a great way to relieve sore muscles, but it can also reduce overall body tension, anxiety and stress too. There are a lot of studies that prove massage is a great way to reduce stress when done regularly. There are many different types of massage, so you should try several kinds and find the one that you prefer.

Nowadays it’s not usually hard to find qualified massage therapists. Massage can release endorphins in the brain which produce pleasure which is helpful in not only stress reduction but also helpful for emotional issues such as anxiety and depression to name a few.

Relaxation Techniques

We have all already probably heard of various methods of relaxation. Some of the most popular methods are basic mediation and the various forms of yoga. You can attend online or actual classes to learn the different parts of these methods so you can learn to relax. There are also other options to these major relaxation techniques. A simpler and more straightforward option would be to learn deep breathing techniques. You can use these even when you are seated in your work station. Progressive muscle relaxation and mental imagery are also possible basic techniques you can use against stress.

Exercising on Schedule

It’s just like what your physical education teacher always said. Maintaining a regular exercise schedule can do wonders for your body. The major benefit of exercise is that it can encourage the proper circulation of your blood. This in turn ensures that oxygen and nutrients reach the various cells in your body. You need these if you ever hope to fight the bad effects of stress on your health.

You’ve now heard only a few of the most effective stress management tips available there are still other ways to approach the management of your overall stress including enough sleep and eating health. What causes your stress can be as important as treating it so you need to know what that is. Stress management can take many forms, and the methods you use will depend on your circumstances and what you prefer.

How to Use the 80/20 Principle to Reduce Stress

The 80/20 rule popularly known as the Pareto Principle was born by an Italian, Vifredo Pareto, after observing that approximately 20% of the people living in Italy owned an astonishing 80% of wealth. It reflected a simple symmetry of inequality then, and the principle gradually spread to other areas of life, particularly stress relief. According to Pareto, the majority of any output comes from the minority of any input.

From a wellness perspective 80% of your health problems will come from 20% of the lifestyle choices you make. Smoking for example, is a small thing that causes many people several health problems. When it comes to stress something that seems trivial would be enough to trigger major problems in some people. Someone might say something about your appearance thinking it’s a joke but if you take it to heart, chances are that it will weigh down on your mind.

To deal with the negative thoughts you will probably run to the pub for a drink but end up spending money that was meant for your bills. Later you might have to lie and the domino effect of stress continues. Depression easily steals 80% of one’s quality of life and most often, we fail to realize that its root cause is not what people say but low self-esteem. Simply working on your confidence would in this case be the 20% you need to do to avoid stress.

In today’s society, people with depression or ADHD quickly turn to drugs in a bid to manage the situation but if you were to follow the 80/20 principle, that is a drastic turn. Attention deficit problems, stress and depression are usually as a result of lifestyle choices so the simple solution would be making changes the foods you eat, how you work out and improve your outlook on life.

Anyone can use Pareto’s principle to reduce stress especially during this festive season when there are countless matters to attend to. Try making two columns of things that brings you stress and those that bring you joy. If for example you find that shopping causes you a great deal of anxiety, have someone else do it for you so you can focus on activities that bring happiness.

Trying to impress others is one of the reasons why many people feel dejected, rejected and unwanted. In line with Pareto’s principle you should protect the 80% that encompasses happiness and wellbeing by invoking positive thoughts and embracing simple solutions to seemingly big problems.

How to Live in the NOW

Many people live in the future. Why? Most people have a future that doesn’t mirror their present so they’d rather be in the future. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing because Law of Attraction states, “…that which you give your attention to will manifest in your life.” However, staying in the future means your present is passing you by. The following are some ways to help you live in the now and live a happy life without stress.

1. Don’t think about it.

Your goal is to stop thinking all the time. Go write down things that pop in your mind, this could be exams that are coming up or that visit to grandpa in a few weeks. Then cross off the ones that you are happy about. The first kiss with your lover can be a great memory that you might want to remind yourself of sometimes. Now you’ve a list of bad things you think about all the time. Because you want to stop thinking about them simply make a pact with yourself to do something stupid each time your head wanders off to one of the subjects on your list. This can be shaking your head really hard or even do 3 push-ups. Warning: Be reasonable and always try to forget if it comes up again.

2. Do Yoga and exercises.

Doing daily exercising will get you in great shape and stops your head from wandering off. Don’t say to yourself I can’t exercise until I finished this, because that’s exactly what you want to get rid of.

3. Avoid daily routine

We like to plan our days so that we don’t hit any surprises. But there’s nothing wrong with some variation or on-the-fly decisions. Donate a dollar to the collector in front of your grocery story. Smile randomly when you see a new store opening up or a beautiful tree. They’re resources you can use for a very long time. You can visit the store to buy new things, and the tree will always be there for your viewing pleasure – and oxygen.

4. The past and future is a reflection of the present.

The most important thing is to do good in the present. Great memories will bloom and future health and wealth can be created. With that in mind it’s only natural to be your best in the present. Really enjoy what you’re doing. Writing or watching television; find the good things in your current activity. It’s the only thing you should worry about.

5. If you don’t like the present, change it.

You can’t change the past but you can change the future. And that’s most important. If you’re not happy with something in your life currently then change it. Want to be a architect? Go study architecture. Feeling lonely? Make a MySpace profile and meet new people. The only thing that is important is that your happy about the present. Only then your future is as bright as can be.

Practice living in the now and know that by accessing the power of now, you can enjoy even more success than ever before.

5 Tips For Reducing Work Stress

Whether you hold a full-time job or work as a freelancer, work from office or work from home, stress is a real issue that every working professional has to deal with sooner or later. As the work culture gets increasingly complicated and employees are expected to work more for less; it’s now more important than ever to find your own recluse.

Relax, if you’ve been feeling stressed out lately from all the workload, just follow these simple tips for a quick fix.

Tips to reduce work stress

1. Listen to music: If your workplace permits listening to music during working hours, plug-in the headphones and tune in for some light, acoustic music. Not only does relaxing music ease your brain by taking away stress, but it can also give you some much-needed motivation to complete the tasks in hand. Classical symphonies, relaxing OSTs and acoustic sound all work wonders.

2. Take a break: With the constant pressure coming from the weight of the world around us, it’s quite easy to feel bogged down and depressed. This is why one must break away from work life once in a while even if it sounds implausible. A break can give you a fresh perspective on things and how to get things done, which is essential for career growth and success. Don’t be afraid; just take a break and go someplace where you always wanted to go before.

3. Smile and laugh a lot: Now before you brand us crazy for asking you to laugh for no reason, just hear us out. Science has found that our mental health and brain function is interconnected to facial expressions. When people feel stressed out, a lot of stress is held in their facial muscles, so smiles and laughs can relieve some of that held tension and make you feel relaxed.

4. Exercise: No, we’re not going ask you to abandon work to visit the gym for a 40-minute lifting session. All you have to do is some simple stretches in between work to feel refreshed and relaxed. You can even go for a 10 min walk, do some pushups, or dance around when no one’s looking to bring back peace of mind.

5. Call in social support: Working, especially from home, can get very lonely at times due to lack of co-workers. In that case, it’s always good to call a friend to share your feelings and concerns. Involving friends and family within regular work schedules can relieve stress, improve trust, and benefit relationships in more ways than one.

Donâ’t think too much; just try out these simple tips the next time you get stressed to feel the difference.

Are You Planning to Fail or Planning to Succeed?

Whenever your goal is to get fit and lose weight, you’re making a plan – even if you’re not planning. Some people have a goal, yet don’t make arrangements or gather ideas for how to reach that goal.

They simply want it to happen. They might even make a commitment to be better, but that type of thinking is a form of self sabotage, because intentions aren’t plans, and you need to be aware of doable tasks that help you cross the finish line.

Lack of planning is setting yourself up for failure. You’re almost giving up on yourself before you ever get started, because you know deep in your gut, that you’ll be quitting in the not so distant future.

Maybe this is why you don’t make plans. Why go to the effort if your true, underlying intention is to start this journey for appearance’s sake only? If you truly wanted to succeed, you’d be actively working toward that goal.

If you’re serious about losing weight and getting fit, then spend some time in the planning phase. You’ll want to make plans for your nutrition as well as your exercise routines.

You might want to start off small, such as making plans to improve your diet habits little by little. Have a milestone for when you want to be eating a certain way, and celebrate those milestones that you reach.

Do the same with your exercise. Maybe the goal at first is to be able to walk 5 miles. So you start off by having a plan to see how many miles you can currently walk. Then plan how much you’ll increase your walk each week or month until you reach your goal.

Meal prep planning is a great way to reach the numbers on the scale that you want to see, or the clothing sizes. You plan out meals one day a week and cook them one day, then eat those meals all week so that it takes the pressure off of you.

Do everyday planning, too. For example – with the weather – if your plans include an outdoor walk every day, watch the news to see what the forecast is for the coming week. If rain is expected, have a plan for an indoor walk at the mall, at the gym, or on a treadmill at home.

Don’t wait until the last minute to come up with ideas and plans. In today’s world, we’re often in such a hurry or so stressed, that it’s sometimes easier to break the commitment than it is to follow through thanks to a little bit of planning along the way.

6 Ways to Rev Up Your Metabolism

When it comes to dieting, most people concern themselves most with cutting calories and burning fat. You’re measuring food, walking on the treadmill, and trying to stay away from temptations.

One good way to lose weight and tone up is to focus on gradually improving your metabolism. If you’ve been a yo yo dieter for years, then chances are your metabolism is struggling, which means you have a harder time losing weight. There are six ways you might be able to change that.

#1 – Build muscle to burn fat for you even when you’re just sitting there.

No one has time to exercise all day long, You’re probably lucky if you can squeeze in twenty minutes of it, much less a full hour. But you can still burn calories even while you’re sitting still or resting if you build a little muscle to work for you.

Muscle works almost like a furnace. It helps burn calories at a higher rate than fat. So even if you haven’t shed enough pounds to see those six pack abs yet, don’t quit lifting weights, because each time you do, you’re one step closer to increasing your metabolism and reaching your goals.

#2 – Stay hydrated throughout your day.

You’re probably already drinking water in order to stay fuller and steer clear of snacks. But water also helps you rev up your metabolism. Even a couple of glasses of water can begin boosting your metabolism up to 30%.

It may not sound like a lot, but when you drink that water daily, or even more for bigger benefits, you start to see a long-term weight loss that you can enjoy almost effortlessly over the course of a year.

#3 – Choose interval training when you exercise.

There are all sorts of exercises that will help you lose weight. Lifting weights, doing cardio exercises – they’re all beneficial. But certain programs like HIIT or other interval training programs boost your metabolism even more because your body is getting intense workouts buffered by short resting periods.

#4 – Eat enough (and the right kinds of foods) to fuel up your body throughout the day.

You may have already chosen a diet program to follow in order to lose weight. Maybe you cut carbs or sugar, or switched to a whole foods program. You might even simply be cutting calories or using mindful eating.

Just make sure you’re getting enough food, because it fuels your metabolism and ultimately helps you keep the weight off for good. Of course, not every food will help with this situation. Sugary donuts won’t help as much as lean protein, for example.

#5 – Stop drinking alcohol.

Even if you’re only a weekend drinker, your metabolism might take a hit if you consume wine, beer or other alcoholic beverages. The reason for this is that your body focuses on alcohol digestion first, so it ignores the food calories you have consumed, slowing it down to a crawl and causing some of it to be turned into fat stores.

#6 – Improve your sleep habits.

If you’re running on fumes, it’s hard for your body to have a fast metabolism. Find out why you’re feeling sluggish and tired. It might be that you’re using technology before bed and finding it hard to get or stay asleep.

Or maybe it’s other sleep hygiene issues, such as uncomfortable bedding, a room that’s too warm, or too much noise in the bedroom. Target the problem, make changes and see if your body is able to begin burning fat faster.

Click Here If You Want To Speed Up Your Metabolism Now

How to Avoid Carbs and Make Good Protein Choices

Carbs aren’t necessarily bad for you. In fact, they provide lots of energy for you to get through your day. But for some, reducing carbs is a quick way to lose weight without feeling like they’re having to give up many of their favorite foods.

Part of the problem is, most men and women get far too many carbs – way more than they need for energy. They might even eat mostly carbs, avoiding protein, so they never feel full for long, and constantly want to snack throughout the day.

This packs on pounds quickly. A typical carb-laden diet might be donuts for breakfast, a sandwich with fruit and chips for lunch, and pasta for dinner. There’s very little (if any) protein in a diet like that, so the person is always hungry, and might even add dessert carbs to the mix, too.

Try reducing your carb count to under 100, lowering that number the more weight you want to lose at a faster speed. You can focus on net carbs when you look at the nutrition label.

Net carbs are the total amount of carbs minus the fiber count in the product. This actually allows you to eat more carbs than if you simply tally the total carbs on the label and log those in your tracking system.

Swap out certain foods for low carb options. For example, if you like making bean burritos at home, switch your regular white flour tortilla with a white flour low carb option. A regular tortilla has about 98 carbs, but you can find low carb options with only 4 carbs in them.

Or, invest in low carb bread that you can order online from places like Netrition. The bread looks, feels and tastes like white bread, so the flavor is there, and you don’t feel deprived.

Focus more on eating carb-friendly vegetables (like broccoli or avocados) and fruits (like berries). Eat plenty of protein. Don’t worry about the fat content. If you like a marbled steak, go for it!

You can even have real butter and plenty of cheese when you’re on a low carb, high protein diet. Fat isn’t the enemy. In fact, it gives you that full sensation you need to stave off the munchies.

If you’re craving dessert, there are low carb option you can make such as chocolate bombs. Or, buy sugar free candies in the store made for diabetics – because these give you the sweetness you desire, without the heavy carbs!