Slimpod C25K Spring Challenge is off and running today

THIS may sound like a pretty big claim, but here goes: I’m about to tell you the secret of a happier, healthier life. Not only that, I’m launching a special Spring Challenge to show you how easy it is to make a fabulous change that will deliver enormous benefits that will last forever.

You see, I was reading some research in the British Journal of Sports Medicine the other day which really excited me. It said that a brisk walk even once a week is enough to significantly reduce the chances of early death.

Gentle exercise once a week can cut the risk of heart disease and cancer by nearly 20 per cent, the study said.

Now this got me thinking: If a few minutes of gentle exercise can do that, what would 20 minutes of moderate exercise like running do?

And so, with the help of Slimpodder Nickie O’Hara I’m launching my Slimpod C25K Spring Challenge today. As the weather’s improving and the days are getting longer, I want to encourage you to get off your bum and go from being a couch potato to a 5K runner!

It’s nowhere near as daunting as you might think. Nickie is a community run leader for the Couch to 5K campaign (C25K) which is run by the NHS.

She started doing easy, gentle runs about five years ago – and soon became hooked on them. Now she has progressed to serious distance running.

Slimpod C25K Spring Challenge video explains everything

Here’s a video Nickie and I made in which she tells you all about the Slimpod C25K Spring Challenge and how easy it is to take part.

Last year Nickie lost 2st 4lb and ran over 1,000 kilometres (that’s 626 miles). This year her target is to lose another 28lbs and run 1,000K again.

“I’ve been using Slimpods for a few years now and they provide me with focus and a Positive Mental Attitude that helps me focus on my goals,” she says.

“I admit that I had good and bad days – this was important to me because it’s not all a bed of roses out there and you learn from the negatives as well as the positives. I also found my tribe and they came on my journey with me.

“Some came out on training runs with me and pushed me beyond what I thought were my limits, some ran beside me in races to make sure I was giving my absolute best, some applauded me at my slimming club when I lost a few extra pounds, some let me cry on their shoulder when I wasn’t feeling great and it took the full year to achieve everything – literally to the last day!

Nickie will be starting a special thread in Slimpod Club that tells you how you can join the Slimpod C25K Spring Challenge. I think you’ll be amazed at what you can achieve in the first four weeks.

We’ll be using the NHS C25k app. You can download this free from your app store (Apple or Google versions available). And here’s where you can find out more about C25K on the NHS website.

Many Slimpodders know the physical and mental benefits that C25K can bring.

Here’s what Helena Doey posted in Slimpod Club recently: “It was amazing as I met a group of people who were in the same place as me (thinking ‘this will never work, but hey I will give it a go’.)

“You soon realise ‘Actually, I might achieve something here.’ Each week there was improvement and your confidence grew with it.

“The team spirit and friendship and achievement that I have gained with this will stay with me forever. Running has become part of my life, I am still slow but I can do it and more importantly I love it.”

So there you have two really inspiring stories from fellow Slimpodders and I’d really love you to give it a go. I’m going to be part of it too so if you’re up for joining Nickie and myself in the Slimpod C25K Spring Challenge let me know by leaving a comment below.

If you’re a Slimpod Club member, join Nickie on her thread!

You can also join Nickie’s special C25K community on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook by using the hashtag #SlimpodC25K.

There’ll be two other exercise threads in Slimpod Club from Monday so if the Slimpod C25K Spring Challenge doesn’t float your boat why not try them.

Come on, let’s do this!

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Is happiness a number?

THE lady on the phone was adamant when I asked her what would make her happy. “Getting down to 9st 7lbs,” she insisted. It was an interesting answer. But not as interesting as her answer to my next question.

“So if you’d lost two stones, apart from a different number on the scales what would be the evidence that you were happier?”

There was a pause. A long one. “Hmm,” she said. “I don’t know what happiness will look like. It’s been such a long time since I last weighed nine stone that feeling happy is something I’ve forgotten.”

It was time for my killer question. One that always makes people stop and think.

“Tell me Jill,” I said. “In your mind, why is happiness solely attached to the number on the scales?”

She paused again. Then…

“OMG,” she said with obvious delight. ”I’d never looked at it that way before.”

And that’s the problem so many people have.

They cast their minds back to the days when they were happy and trouble-free and assume that if only they could be as slim as they were then, all that happiness would just come flooding back.

It creates huge and unnecessary stress that simply drags them down.  They spend all their time being obsessed about the number they saw on the scales 25 or 30 years ago.

They think that’s the key to their weight loss happiness.

By directly linking smaller size with greater happiness they overlook the fact that the world has changed for all of us.

When we were younger (OMG, I’m sounding like my mother) there were no mobile phones, no laptops and no social media – so we weren’t constantly comparing ourselves with other people and the way they looked and felt.

Today life is super-busy and ultra-stressful. Linking happiness to the scales means life can become an emotional rollercoaster.

That’s why I’ve posted this special video in The Slimpod Channel on YouTube because it’s so important to stop this obsession with the number on the scales and to be able to think carefully about what happiness really means to us.

Instead of doing something that makes us unhappy every day, we need to flip it round completely.

Knowing your destination is important but you must learn to love the journey.

Enjoy the process. Get your weight loss happiness from small daily and weekly steps that are achievable.

That’s where your  Slimpod will be a great help. Feeling good about yourself is the route to self-fulfilment and self-esteem.

Forget the scales. Just be you – a warm and wonderful person, not a number.

Please leave a comment below to tell me what’s going to give you weight loss happiness. I love reading them all – because they make ME happy.

 

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Smile and be happy about life – it’s so good for your health

DON’T know about you, but I love February.  The days are getting a bit longer and I do love the brighter mornings and evenings. As I walked the dogs this morning I was thrilled to see that in sheltered spots around the lake the snowdrops and daffodils are poking their heads out.

The birds are busy, noisily calling for mates, and once the blue tits in the garden have finished feasting on the peanuts we put out it won’t be long before their thoughts turn to nest-building.

It all means Spring’s not far away and that fills me with joy.

Which is good, because scientists have discovered that positive happy thoughts have a hugely-beneficial effect on our wellbeing.

Being happy with life has the power to boost our immune system and calm our heart rates, according to research I read in the journal Clinical psychological Science last week.

As you might know, positive psychology is at the core of the Slimpod programme, so it was good to see a study explore the physical side of positive thinking and not just the mental health side.

The snowdrops I saw today

By being kind to ourselves we feel relaxed and safe, and this lowers our heart rate. Because this switches off what’s called our subconscious threat response, we boost our immune system and give ourselves a better chance of healing.

What’s not to like? So let’s all give ourselves a break, stop being self-critical, treat ourselves kind and think happy, positive thoughts about all the wonders that surround us.

Let’s look for things which inspire us and help us feel great, because that’s definitely the way to go!

Over the past week we’ve had a lot of positivity going on in Slimpod Club and I thought I’d share some of it with you to inspire you as we head into a new week.

If you’re part of our Facebook group you’ll know it’s a very positive place to be and you might recognise some of the quotes (but not the faces, which we’ve pixellated):

Joanna posted:

Then Ros posted:

Finally Carol posted:

Reading about these Slimpodders’ happiness is infectious – I know it fills my heart with joy – so this week I’d love you to reflect on all the positive things in your life.

For some of you they may only be small changes, but you know they are building into something bigger, so smile and be happy.

And if you’re a recent starter and your Slimpod is still working away on the inside so you haven’t noticed real differences yet, that’s means you’ve got a lot of happy times to look forward to.

Keep posting your successes in Slimpod Club everyone! And why not post them here too in the Comments?

Spreading happiness is wonderful thing.

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Be honest now, do you really BELIEVE you can lose weight?

IN my last blog I was so excited about Slimpod and myself making our TV debut on Channel 4’s How To Lose Weight Well and I explained how believing in myself and my goals was the critical part in making that happen.

Over the many years that I’ve been a weight loss specialist, I’ve noticed that people who’ve struggled with their weight for a long time, lose the belief that they CAN lose weight.

Then for many, it affects their self-esteem in general.  They’ve been so focussed on the scales and have literally allowed that contraption to control how they feel and believe about themselves as a person.

And that’s when things go very wrong, because even though you’re acting as if you want to lose weight, your heart isn’t in it because you don’t believe you can do it.

Then you give up.

To achieve lasting weight loss you have to take back control and believe in yourself!

This involves a daily habit-changing process because when you change your daily behaviour this begins to filter through and has a big influence in the way you think about yourself and your beliefs about what you can achieve.

If you’re making a habit of noticing daily improvements to your behaviour and to the way you feel, magical things happen because seeing is believing!

And trust me, the change can be truly dramatic.

For starters, it has an amazing effect on consistency because you’re focusing on the daily wins rather than the results (ie the number on the scales).

This process of daily actions and wins builds your belief and belief helps to build resilience.  It’s resilience and consistency that gets you to your goal!

The psychology of self-belief is process I teach to our Slimpod community and those who choose to adopt the advice get great results.

In Summer 2018 we ran a challenge in Slimpod Club which involved members recording their daily wins in a very short video on their phone and uploading it into our private group every day.

It really worked well and helped people to focus on the daily process, which in turn helped their self-belief.

The nurses who had taken part in the How To Lose Weight Well programme said it really helped them believe in themselves and their goal too.

They really got into the habit of doing their daily video because it helped them to reflect on the positive things in the day and they got a huge sense of achievement.  Crucially, they heard themselves speaking the positives out loud and this has a dramatic effect because it makes it real.

But one of the best things is that it helps with motivation. As you know, it’s the repetition of small daily actions which creates the results and when you get in the habit of focusing on the daily process, it becomes very motivational.

You get the opportunity to give yourself a big high five and it’s a huge vote for the person you want to become.

And finally, it’s truly inspiring for other people watching and creates a lovely positive and motivational effect all round!  Everyone gets to experience Nature’s happy drugs!

One of the people who took part in the challenge last year popped up in a video in Slimpod Club last week and it was SO lovely to see her.

I asked Christina McKay if I could share her message because it was such a powerful one.

Whether you’re a member of Slimpod Club or not, please do spare a few minutes of your time to watch the video because it’s truly inspirational.

Thanks so much Christina for allowing me to share this and inspire people via my blog.

I’m about to kick off another video challenge in the private group, so if you’re in our Slimpod Club community watch out for it!

If you’re not in the group, it’s no problem.  You can easily record a very quick video at the end of the day or any time you have a ‘Wow’ moment.

You could buddy up with a friend and help them to believe in themselves more by taking some daily action too!  Do scroll down and let me know if you struggle with your belief in your ability to lose weight.

It’s one of the most important things to get right and we cover it in the programme. But I can also create a special vlog next week to help you if I know it’s something you’d like more of.

Let me know by leaving a comment below. I love reading them all!

 

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How to lose weight well: Believe in your dreams and you will achieve

HOW to lose weight well is everyone’s goal and one of the key parts of our Slimpod programme is about personal empowerment – giving people back control over their food and lifestyle choices.  We base a lot of our system on positive psychology and we encourage people to share their wins.

When you share good things you feel good and you inspire others!

So I thought I’d share some of my big wins this week because I’m very proud of them!  I hope they’ll inspire you too!

For many years my dream has been to make a difference to the health of the staff working our National Health Service.

The people who work so hard to keep us healthy and alive are the least able to keep themselves healthy because their working environment makes it so difficult.

It’s not been an easy ride – and I had to really believe in my dream!

However, nearly two years ago it happened and I began working with the Chief Executive and staff at Tameside Hospital in Manchester to help staff lose weight and be healthier.

I’ve loved every minute of it and together we’ve been making a big difference.

A year ago the restaurant became the first hospital restaurant in the UK to go sugar free and it made the news!

Last June the producers of Channel 4’s How to Lose Weight Well asked if they could feature us on their programme. Well! That was a bit of a no-brainer!!

We spent a day filming and we enjoyed every minute of our time with Dr Xand!!

Here’s me being interviewed by Dr Xand for How To Lose Weight Well…

Throughout the 12 weeks the staff had to record their video updates in a Whatsapp group and it was so wonderful getting to know these wonderful people. Their eating habits changed and it was SO lovely to witness the joy and happiness.

The programme was broadcast on Monday evening and I was very nervous about what would make it on to the screen because we weren’t told in advance.

I must admit I was a little disappointed with how little time they gave to the results because we gave them loads of footage. Lovely Dawn, who was featured, felt they could’ve shown more too but I know there’s a limit to how much can be crushed into the show and I’m SO  very grateful to Channel 4 for the opportunity.

In case you missed it here’s some pictures and you can see it on the Channel 4 site. It’s in the second half of episode two.

And here’s the real stars of How To Lose Weight Well, some of our lovely Tameside hospital staff…

The TV publicity has attracted tons of people to Slimpod so a very warm welcome if you joined us after watching the programme.

If you didn’t watch the show, here’s where you can see it.

How To Lose Weight Well

Slimpod’s always in the national press, it seems, and this week saw us pop up in three places.

The Daily Mirror did a lovely piece on how we’ve helped the staff at a hospital to be healthier and happier. You can read the Mirror article here.

The low calorie healthy eating hospital

Then our lovely nurse Laurabeth Ives, who’s lost an amazing amount of weight with Slimpod and looks just sensational, was featured in the Daily Mirror and two other national newspapers.

Here’s the Mirror article

As a result, I’m so proud that several hospitals have been in touch about the work we’re doing at Tameside and a lot of NHS staff have become part of the community. It warms my heart so much.

So there’s my Win Of The Week! I hope it’s helped inspire you to believe in your goals – because when you believe, you achieve! That’s how to lose weight well.

Tell me more about your dreams and goals by dropping me a comment below.

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Boot Camp 2: How to eat to lose fat, by Dale the Medicinal Chef

HI THERE, Boot Campers! I’m so happy you’re taking part in the four week challenge!  Following on from last week and the work we did creating our Goalmaps, in week 2 we get down to business!  The food!!

Obviously Slimpod motivates us to automatically make healthier food choices, which is key,  but I know there’s a lot of confusion about what food is best to help you lose fat.

So this week I thought I’d bring in some expert advice and the Medicinal Chef, Dale Pinnock, is here to help you get a step closer to achieving those goals you created!

Dale has written 14 books and appeared on TV many times so he knows a thing or two about healthy eating!

I asked Dale to join me to help you with your mission towards lasting weight loss and here’s the video:

The link to Dale’s programme is here and if you insert the code SLIMPOD you’ll get a 15 per cent discount.

So let’s put Dale’s advice into practice over the next few weeks and build some healthy habits!

Use food to our advantage, whether it’s for weight loss, wellbeing or general health. Remember you are what you eat.

How to eat to lose fat

So for the next three weeks I would like you to focus on loving your body – and I mean really loving it!

Imagine it’s your most prized possession, something you worship and care about.

You could even imagine your body is a six-month-old baby – how careful would you be about what went in its mouth?

Healthy eating means cutting refined carbs!

Here’s the task!  For the next 21 days, I’d really like you consciously be aware of the refined carbs and processed food you’re eating and gently cut them down.

This means cake, biscuits, white bread, chocolate, white pasta and anything that you know in your heart is not worthy of going into your mouth!

Slimpod will be nudging you towards the healthier choices but there’s so much food that looks healthy but really isn’t nutritious or good for you at all!

There’s SO much hidden sugar in processed foods so aim to avoid them.  I’m not asking you to give them up completely, all I’m doing is asking you to be a bit more aware of what you’re putting in your shopping trolley and then in your mouth!

I bet you’ll be amazed how easily you can do this and imagine how much good you’ll be doing your body.

Remember, we’re not dieting here.  We’re just making a few good changes to your daily eating habits.

One of the main action points for this week is to make sure you eat protein twice a day. Lean meat, fish and eggs are packed with healthy protein.

This is the only thing I’m going to insist on.

So just to recap: It’s really simple. Cut down on the refined carbs! That means less processed food. And pump up the protein!

You’ll naturally be losing interest in most of the sweet stuff and snacks but sometimes we’re fooled by the marketers and we fall prey to the 3 for 2 offers – so beware!!

If you don’t buy them they won’t get into your mouth!

I’m hoping you’ve taken your measurements last week, but if you haven’t do it now!

If you have a tight pair of trousers or a skirt then in three weeks it should be easier to get into.

So there you go!  Your Slimpod will support you with your healthy eating and I’d love you to write down your daily wins below or if you’re a member of the Slimpod Community share them with us there.

Here’s to your success!

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The art of goal-setting made easy when you’re losing weight

IN my first blog about Boot Camp on Monday I said I had an amazing goal-setting expert to help you create goals that will serve you through 2019 and help you succeed.  Brian Mayne is great friend, mentor and a world leader in personal development.

He works with corporates and celebrities worldwide, helping them achieve great things in their lives. In the video below Brian takes you through the process of creating a goal map by using his system – and it’s free!

Brian explains how his unique and exciting goal-setting system works and shows you how easy it is to create your own goal map that you can use to help visualise your goals and help you to lose weight.

Brian and his Goalmapping system helped to change my life many years ago and I still use it all the time so I’m sharing the magic of goal-setting with you today. He explains everything in this video which I’m sure will inspire you and capture your imagination they it did for me when I first met BRian many years ago.

The art of goal setting

I would REALLY encourage you to spend a few minutes creating your own goal map.   Please do take a picture of it and post below or in Slimpod Club if you’re a member of our private group on Facebook.  I’d love to see them!

Look out for next Monday’s blog which will star another one of my expert friends, the Medicinal Chef Dale Pinnock.

We’re about to record another video together and in this next one, Dale will be giving you tips on how to eat to lose that excess fat for the last time!

Enjoy!

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