Starts today! Join my Drop A Size For Christmas challenge

WOW! I can’t believe we’re on the run-up to Christmas – how did that happen? It’s always a great opportunity to have the last push of the year to release some of that excess weight.

So let me help you to drop a size for Christmas! Because it just couldn’t be easier!

In this new video which launches my 30-day challenge, I’m going to let you in on the secret of how to achieve your goal.

It’s the best early Christmas present you could give yourself – and please feel free to share this blog post with your family, friends and colleagues if you think it would help them.

 

 

If you’re a member of the Slimpod Club community on Facebook there’ll be various activities going on there over the next 30 days. If you’re not, then just join the challenge by commenting below.

I’d love to know what steps you’re going to be taking over the next few weeks to drop a size for Christmas – so let me know. Your comments will inspire so many others.

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Chicken in Tarragon Sauce – another great healthy recipe

WHAT’S the recipe we’re all looking for? Something that’s quick, simple, delicious and healthy! This week as usual our superchef Simon Smith has got just the thing. His Chicken in Tarragon Sauce looks amazing – and I bet it tastes amazing, too.

Simon rates chicken very highly because it’s packed with protein that not only does you good but helps you feel full so you find it easier to go for smaller portion sizes.

Let him know how much you like his recipe by leaving a comment below.

Chicken in Tarragon Sauce

Preparation time: 15mins

Cooking time: 15mins

Serves 2

Ingredients:

2  130g Chicken breasts (skinless, boneless & butterflied)

3 Shallots Onions (fine diced)

60g Button Mushrooms (quartered)

15g Fresh Tarragon (chopped)

2clv Garlic (pureed)

10g Unsalted Butter (melted)

10g Olive Oil

80ml White Wine

100ml Chicken Stock

100ml Whipping Cream

Seasoning

Equipment Needed:

Skillet / griddle pan

4 Mixing Bowls

Small Vegetable Knife

Chopping board

Preparation:

Prepare the vegetables and set aside in separate bowls. Butterfly the chicken breast, place on to a plate and season.

Heat the skillet on a low heat. Add the olive oil, melted butter and the garlic. Sauté the garlic for a couple of seconds. Add the chicken breasts and cover the pan with a tight fitted lid. Allow to sauté on low for 4mins and turn over chicken fillets and replace the lid and cook for an additional 2mins.

Remove the lid and add the shallots and the button mushrooms. Allow to sauté the vegetables until they soften. Next add ½ the tarragon herb and allow to cook for an additional minute.

Add to the white wine and increase the heat to high, allow the wine to boil and reduce till only ½ the liquid is left in the pan. At this stage add the chicken stock and allow the stock to also reduce till only a light jus id left.

Pour in the whipping cream and add the last of the tarragon. Allow the cream to cook and reduce on a high heat until it has reached a consistence that coats the back of a spoon.

Give the sauce a final seasoning and serve….

 

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Be honest: Are the scales your friend or your foe?

ONE of the most common things people in our Slimpod Community on Facebook raise with me is their relationship with the weighing scales. One lady asked if I could help her to understand more about the effect the scales have on her emotions because she thinks they’re partly to blame for her self-sabotage. As this is one of my favourite subjects, I’m more than happy to oblige!

In this video I explain how that piece of metal in the bathroom can actually control your emotions, making you feel happy or sad, and I discuss how a lot of people are obsessed with weighing themselves.

So after you’ve watched the video, here’s your task for this week. Take some time out to think about your relationship with the scales.  Does it have a positive impact on your daily life? When you hop on and off does it always empower you to keep your weight in control?  If so, then that’s absolutely wonderful and continue to do what you’re doing!

However, if as a result of hopping on the scales you eat to make yourself feel better or give up your healthy eating because you think there’s no hope and you’re a failure, then this is no good and it needs to stop because your relationship with the scales is destructive emotionally and it’s helping you to self-sabotage.

Drop me a comment below and tell me about your relationship with the scales. Does it make you feel good or bad?

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Drop a size in time for the Christmas partying!!

YOU ask, we listen! Following a great discussion in our Facebook Slimpod Club community last week, we’ll be launching on October 30th a 30-day drive to Drop a Size In Time For The Christmas Partying!

In Slimpod Club between now and October 30th I’ll be suggesting several new healthy habits on which you can focus for just 30 days. Easy!

The 30-day challenge is for men and women and will be really simple. All you need to do is choose just two things to focus on and then commit to doing them every day during November. We will run special groups to enable you to hold each other accountable.

Here are some thoughts, but please add your suggestions to the comments below, too, because this is all about your journey and implementing small changes in your life.

With your Slimpod helping you, committing to a couple of the suggestions below will be very easy!

* Reduce the sugar and refined carbs in your daily diet.

Reduce alcohol.

* Do a certain number of steps every day.

* Do squats every day.

* If you suffer from stress, practise mindfulness or meditation every day.

* Do the Pioppi or Blood Sugar diet for 30 days (and before you scream at me – they’re not really diets, they’re recipes based on proper food with no sugar or refined carbs and re really, really good for you!)

* Drink more water each day.

Naturally we will also be asking you to listen to your pods every day. I’ll be pitching in with a video here and there giving you support and advice.

So let’s get this moving and be all set for October 30th! I’m thinking it would be a great idea for you to identify an outfit you’d like to feel comfortable in for Christmas and have that as a goal.  What do you think?!

Weight loss is not a one size fits all – we can all choose our individual path and then work together to achieve it!

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Butternut squash and mushroom risotto – great healthy recipe

AS you know, I’m a passionate believer in the old saying “Eat healthy to live healthy.” So I’m really excited that our superchef Simon Smith has produced a recipe for you this week which features one of Nature’s superfoods – butternut squash. As head chef at Tameside NHS hospital in Manchester, Simon knows the importance of serving meals which are packed with all the good things our bodies need.

Butternut squash is low in fat and high in fibre, so it is an exceptionally heart-friendly vegetable. The fibre content is an aid to weight loss because just like a Slimpod it gives you a feeling of fullness.

It is also a good source of vitamins C, E and B6 plus a whole load of other important nutrients, so it helps protect skin, improves eyesight and boosts the immune system. One last amazing fact: a cup of cubed butternut squash contains more potassium than a large banana. Potassium is essential for bone health.

Let me know how much you like Simon’s recipe by leaving a comment below – he loves reading all your feedback.

Butternut squash and mushroom rissoto

SERVES 4

PREPARATION TIME: 15mins

COOKING TIME: approx. 40mins

Ingredients:

200g Butternut Squash (Diced)

360g Arborio Rice

1 Medium Onion (Diced)

150g Chestnut Mushrooms (sliced)

2clv Garlic (pureed)

1 Spring Onion (chopped)

750ml Vegetable Stock (hot)

100ml White Wine

15g Butter

10g Olive Oil

10g Fresh Basil

10g Fresh Parsley

Equipment Needed:

2inch deep Sauté Pan

Mixing Bowl

Small Vegetable Knife

Chopping board

 

Method:

Place the risotto pan on a low heat on the cooker and add the olive oil, butter and garlic. Stir continuously until all the butter has melted. Add the butternut squash, onion and mushrooms and stir until coated in the garlic butter, allow to sauté for approx. 5 min or till vegetables have slightly softened

Reduce the heat to a low setting and add the rice.  Stir the rice, spring onion and basil into the butter and veg mix and allow to sauté in the pan until the rice becomes semi-transparent. The continuous stirring of this dish is a factor in creating a creamy texture.

Increase the heat and add the wine allow the wine to simmer and absorb into the rice mix while continuing to stir.

Add a cup of veg stock into the pan stir the stock into the mix and allow simmering then continually stirring the rice mixture through the stock until it is all absorbed.

Repeat the last step one cup of stock at a time until all the stock is absorbed. The rice should have a soft texture with a slight crunch in the bite. Season and allow to rest for 5mins.

Then serve with a small helping of fresh parmesan cheese and a sprinkle of fresh parsley.

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Consistent small weight losses are the key to long-term success

DAY IN and day out I come across so many people who get really upset if they’re not consistently losing lots of weight each week. Some people then stop doing whatever they’re doing because they think the weight loss plan has stopped working, or it gets too hard to sustain.

They then blame themselves for “falling off the wagon” which leads to comfort eating to make themselves feel good. This, of course, then becomes a vicious cycle, inevitably leading to regaining any weight they’ve lost.

We live in an “instant” world where people can get most things almost immediately.  However, this just doesn’t happen with weight loss because your body won’t let it.

I’m constantly saying “steady wins the race” and a study has been published in the journal Obesity which proves this is the best way of losing weight long term.

It found that “hares” who crash dieted their way to slimness lost less weight over two years than “tortoises” who shed a consistent number of pounds over time.

The research shows that it seems that developing stable, repeatable behaviours related to food intake and weight loss early on in a weight control programme is really important for maintaining changes over the long term.

Which is precisely what my Slimpod weight loss programmes do, of course!

Professor Michael Lowe, from Drexel University in the US, said his research showed that sticking to weight-loss goals was important even if progress was slow.

He said: “Settle on a weight-loss plan that you can maintain week in and week out, even if that means consistently losing three quarters of a pound each week.”

Such good advice!

Here’s a link to the study:

Consistent Pounds Shed Leads To Weight Loss

 

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More great healthy habit building strategies

LAST week I gave you three strategies for building new habits.   Make sure you let me know below how you’re doing with them! I also said last week that I’d be building on those and giving you  some more – so here goes!

One thing that most people forget about when they’re trying to lose weight is their environment and how that influences and determines what they eat each day and their behaviour towards food.

Our home or work environment is not something that we think about very often but it’s really important for achieving goals because if your environment is stacked against you then it just makes it really really hard to get to where you want to be.

If for example you work in an office and somebody is consistently bringing in cakes or chocolate then it’s very very hard to resist temptation.  Or if you’re in the habit of including treats and snacks in your weekly shop so that these things are constantly in the house then of course it’s going to be so easy to just munching away through them during the day.

People often say “oh it’s for my son” or “it’s for my husband” when actually I think that’s a big excuse and it’s really for themselves!  Hands up – who does this?!

Yes it’s true that we respond to the environment around us but we can turn this round and actually use the environment to help us rather than hinder us.

Things in our environment become visual triggers for us to eat or drink and very quickly develop into a bad habit!

But we can use visual triggers to turn things around and create good habits.  Here are some ideas:

1. Switch things around a bit at home.  If you want to break a habit then put the thing that’s causing the issue in a place that’s a bit more difficult to get to. Out of sight helps it to be out of mind.
   2.  Make the healthy things far more visible to you. e.g  put the fruit in a place that you can easily see it every day.  Have a bottle of water on your desk and challenge yourself to drink it all in the day.
2. This next one is a fab strategy and I’d love you to do this as a task for the week ahead.  Put up a calendar in a visible place and every day that you perform your new habit, put a big cross on the calendar.  It will soon make a “success chain” and psychology proves that when you have consistently marked crosses on the calendar you won’t want to break the chain.

This simple strategy has been proven to help with procrastination and motivation.

Most people get demotivated and off–track after a bad day, which could include a bad workout, eating badly or simply a bad day at work, but this encourages you to get right back on track again because your focus is on the process of not breaking the chain and you forget about everything else.  Again, the task needs to be meaningful and simple enough to get it done easily!

If you slip up, then get back on track quickly.  None of us is superhuman.  We all slip up and to ride the blips we need to be kind to ourselves, understand it’s going to happen and be self compassionate. Build it into life!  That’s what the successful people do and you can do it too!

Let me know below which strategy you choose to implement into your life.  I love hearing about your progress.

 

 

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