Resolution to lose weight

To make your New Year’s resolution stick this year, don't just stop at saying "I want to lose weight in 2012" or "I want to get fit and toned."

Chances are you’ll be on and off loads of diets and although you will probably lose weight, you will also be very likely to fall off the wagon and regain the flab plus more. That failure will happen unless you back up your dream and vision to lose weight with very specific plans.

Plans that are easily built into your everyday life. Plans that help to knock old bad habits hard on the head.

Here are some examples of how to do this and what you might work on to be successful with your resolutions to lose weight:

1. Write down 3 specific eating or drinking habits that you need to work on

  • Cut back on alcohol intake
  • Stop drinking regular soft drinks
  • Change the portions served
  • Cook at home more often
  • Stop meal skipping
  • Cut back on the number of milky coffees drunk
  • Stop jumping on the bathroom scales every minute of the day – it does anyone’s mind in!
  • Increase the intake of vegetables or salad
  • Eat fruit

2. For each one, write down something realistic and easy that you could do to change that habit

  • Keep less alcohol at home. Only buy a bottle rather than a cask of wine. Choose at least 3 nights per week when you’ll be totally alcohol-free.
  • Cross regular soft drink off the shopping list. Replace with low joule/diet soft drink/soda water. Put a jug of water on the desk at work. Keep a water bottle in the car.
  • Use Trudy’s book to find out which foods need to be reduced and which need to be increased. You’ll need to cook less of some foods but more of others so you have the best amount to serve.
  • Plan a weekly shop that includes enough food for at least 5 nights of home cooked foods. it’s okay to eat leftovers of home cooked meals on another evening!
  • Put the alarm on to get you up 15 mins earlier so you have time for breakfast. Set a reminder on the mobile phone or computer to remind you to take a break for lunch at a sensible time.
  • Make the first coffee of the day fantastic but buy a smaller cup of it. Make all the other coffees black with a dash of milk or switch to tea. Better still drink more water.
  • Bury the bathroom scales in a room or space where you don’t go right into every day – maybe the laundry or spare room?
  • Buy frozen vegetables so you never run out. Cut up enough vegetables tonight for tomorrow’s meal as well. Don’t cook tomorrow’s vegetables – just pop them into a storage tub in the fridge ready to go tomorrow. Take cut up vegetables or salad to work.

3. Work on each of those 3 habits during January and February. It takes up to 2 months to bed down a new habit and change and old one, so don’t give up too soon and don't try to do too many things at once.

4. Keep track of how well you are going. Draw up a weekly success chart with each of the new habits listed. Each and every day, give yourself a star if you succeeded on the day. At the end of each week, total up your stars. If you’re getting 5 or more for each new habit, that’s fantastic. If you’re not doing that well, then work out how you could improve things further. What (or who) is stopping you? Work on ways you can make that new habit stick.

Apply this technique for teasing out your plans for success in any resolution or dream.

Simply replace any reference to eating and drinking or weight loss with another goal.

For example:

Here are some ways to be successful with your resolutions to lose weight "I am going to get fit this year"

1. Write down 3 specific eating or drinking activity habits that you need to work on.

  • Walk an extra 60 minutes a day on three days each week
  • Keep a spare set of gym shoes/swimming gear/sports equipment in the car
  • Swap couch time for active time

2. For each one, write down something realistic and easy that you could do to change that habit.

  • Book out dates and times in my diary so that I have 60 minutes spare to go for a walk
  • Go buy a second set of walking/running shoes to keep at the office so I can use them at lunch time
  • Get a fit (swiss) ball to sit on while watching the box or working on the computer
  • Set a time limit of screen time

This technique applies at all times of the year whenever you want to get ideas/dreams/goals started and firmly planted into your life.

this=that - adult's version

!

this=that: a life-size photo guide to food serves: revised and expanded (2011)

Order today and your copy will be sent out within a couple of days ready to help you have a healthy year in 2012.

Get it faster by ticking Express Post (Australia only) when you order.

If you want a no-fuss approach to eating well for a better body and health, then you've found it. I promise you won't be disappointed. This is the best photographic visual portion guide you will ever find.

More than 400 life-size food and drink photos show serve sizes.

Just by looking at pictures you will quickly see how different foods compare for the same energy value. You'll also find out how many serves to eat each day to reach your goals.

Order right now to get your copy. Just click the little shopping trolley symbol to the right of the book cover.

Want a quick no-fuss approach to great nutrition and weight control by enjoying everyday foods?

Want to stop counting calories? Get this book!

With the help of real life-size food photos, you'll see which foods to have more or less of for better health and body shape with this award winning book.

Inside, you'll find an easy-to-use format of life-size images divided into different food sections. This book is big. It's about 225 mm x 310 mm in size and the weight is close to 1.6 kg.

  • This new version is a bumper 261 pages long.
  • Inside more than 400 life-size food and drink photos are included. The original version had just over 300 images.
  • Almost 500 foods and drinks in total are featured in seven main sections.
  • A new section about flavours and drinks has been added.
  • A weekly totals guide has been created to give you even more flexibility.
  • At the back is a food composition table with protein, fat, carbohydrate, alcohol and energy values for all foods and drinks featured. You don't need to use these tables to use the book. The whole idea of this book is that you can and will throw away any need to calorie count by simply by checking your serves against the life-size photos.
  • Additional images and information about health protective vegetables (vitamin A rich, brassica and folate rich) in line with draft nutrition updates from the National Health &Medical Research Council.

  • We photographed real foods without any packaging or branding. The images in this book are timeless.

Chosen FREE gift wrapping? We can send the gift directly to your friend. Simply include your 'message to them' in the notes or comments area of the order page and we will write a gift tag to go with the parcel. Put their name and address in the delivery address section. Of course, the receipt/invoice will be sent to you only.

To open 'more images' and view some extra pages from the original version of this=that, you may need to 'allow blocked' when prompted by your computer. Your Internet browser settings may think these images are advertisements when they are not - the extra images will help you decide the value of the book.