Sports psychologist, Pete Cohen, of the
       Lighten Up slimming programme explains
       how losing weight could be all in the mind.

People often ask me why I run a slimming programme when I’ve never had a weight problem. My answer is that I know how to be slim without subscribing to a popular diet and I can teach you how to be slim too.
When I first started working as a personal trainer 12 years ago, I noticed that a lot of my clients didn’t care very much about being fit and healthy and they certainly weren’t exercising for fun. All they wanted to do was lose weight. I’d start by designing the perfect exercise programme for them and, when they failed to stick to it, I’d turn my attention to nutrition and give them diet sheets. Of course, they didn’t stick to those either and that was when I realised that the answer must be somewhere else.I began to study the habits of all the slim and healthy people I knew. After all, if you want to find out how to do something it’s best to learn from people who do it best.
In my opinion dieting doesn’t work. All it does is make you more anxious about food and disrupt your metabolism. So, let’s assume that you’re ready to suspend your belief in dieting for a while and think like a slim person. How do you go about it?

1. Change your focus
The most important thing of all – and it’s something that slim people take for granted – is belief in yourself as a slim person. If you think of yourself as overweight you’ll find it difficult to lose weight and keep it off. We all live up to our self-images. When I ask a group of people on the first week of the Lighten Up course what it is that they want, they usually say something like, ‘I want to lose weight.’
When they say that, I know they are actually picturing the weight they want to lose, right there and then. They are seeing the thighs or the beer belly or the bum or whichever bit of them they like the least – and what you see tends to be what you get. What they should be focusing on is how they actually want to look, rather than the weight they want to lose. Slim people have a much better self-image and getting slimmer involves having a more positive picture of yourself. If you imagine yourself looking gorgeous in a bathing suit, you’re much more likely to behave like that person. It will encourage you to stop overeating or eating unhealthy foods in much the same way as an inspirational photograph on the fridge door might stop you from snacking.

2. Understand your hunger
Slim people eat based on how hungry they are and when lunch time or tea time or dinner time comes around they don’t just fill up their plate because the food is there. Subconsciously, they judge how hungry they are before they start eating. Similarly, if they feel full during a meal they stop eating.
The next time hunger pangs strike, imagine you have a scale in your mind from one to ten. One means you’re not hungry, ten means you’re starving. Check where you are on that scale before you put anything into your mouth. Only eat if you’re registering six or above – but don’t let yourself get up to nine or ten because then you’ll be so hungry that you might risk overeating. You can also use the scale to judge how full you’re getting.

3. Think about what you eat
Now imagine you’ve registered above six on the hunger scale and you’re ready to eat. Don’t just stuff the nearest hamburger into your mouth. Stop and ask yourself how the food you want to eat will make you feel half an hour or so after you’ve eaten it. Will it give you energy or will it make you feel heavy and sluggish? Think about a couple of different things you might eat, how they’d make you feel, what they’d smell and taste like, then make your choice.

4. Savour your food
No one knows for sure how long it takes for your stomach to tell your brain that it’s full, but experts estimate that it takes at least ten minutes. Do yourself a favour and slow down when you eat. Pause between each mouthful and chew everything properly. From now on, put your knife and fork down between mouthfuls, pause between courses and take time to taste every bite. You’ll be amazed at how great some of the food you usually take for granted actually tastes when you give yourself time to enjoy it.

5. Treat your body better
Your body wasn’t designed to sit at a desk all day and in front of a TV all night. It was designed to move. Most of us don’t move enough. Slim people are naturally more active – and that doesn’t mean they go to the gym every day. Moving more doesn’t mean you have to embark on a punishing exercise regime or go jogging for miles. It just means respecting your body and taking little steps that will help you become fit and healthy. Perhaps you could cycle to work instead of taking the car or train or walk the kids to school instead of driving them there. Whatever you choose, the key to getting results is to build more activity into your daily life.

 

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