Challenging unhelpful thinking! You may feel losing weight and sticking to your healthier plan is difficult this time of year. If you don’t want a setback try to recognise and deal with any unhelpful thoughts you may have. By this we mean any thoughts that tell us its ok to behave in a way that we know will get in the way of our healthier plan. Examples might be “Oh it’s Christmas I can have a blow out”, “I’ve got so many parties and social events, December is a write off”, “I’ve blown it today in the office with all the chocolate treats, there’s nothing I can do about it so I may as well enjoy the treats”. If this seems relevant to you think about the last time you didn’t stick to you plan. What unhelpful thoughts got in your way? Try to practice alternative and more helpful ways of thinking, examples might include “Well Christmas is actually only 1-2 days, there is a lot I can still achieve in the lead up”, “I will enjoy Christmas dinner and a few treats on Christmas day, I could up my activity levels in the run up, to compensate for treating myself a little”, “I don’t want to avoid social events, I’ll remember I always have a choice in those situations”, “Whatever I decide to do now will affect me later, if I abandon my goals now, I will have to work harder in the future to achieve my goals”. Be aware of what you are telling yourself and practice practice practice positive alternative thoughts! ☺️🤔👏

Anyone have a Christmas action plan for 'damage limitation'? Please share any ideas. Some ideas our end....Got a party/event...don't skip meals that day, stick to your regular eating plan, that way you can avoid feeling over hungry and eating more than you might have! It should also make it easier to resist unhealthy options. Drinking alcohol over the festive season? Maybe set a goal to stick to a number of alcohol drinks at any event? Or alternate alcoholic drinks with with a low sugar soft drink or water? Buffet? A planned goal might be to go to the buffet once for one plate. Pick items that will help you feel full and plan not go back to the buffet and pick. These are only ideas. Think about any high risk situations you have coming up which could lead to you coming off your plan and consider all your options/choices and solutions to limit a major setback. Our next post will be about challenging unhelpful thinking around this time of year 😀

Some feedback from those who have received our support… “I feel well informed, I'm eating healthily and have health awareness, I feel empowered”. “I have made lifestyle changes which I will definitely be keeping up” “At last feel I have the support I need to reach my goals” “It’s helped me to start a massive change in my life for the better” “Support is educating rather than simply providing a slimming diet” “The programme has opened my eyes to portion sizes which I believe is a large part of being overweight”

Common weight loss traps and quick fixes http://www.nhs.uk/Tools/Documents/WEIGHT-LOSS-PACK/week-6.pdf

How do you manage a craving? What goal or technique are you practicing to not give in to a craving? Let us know and share your success 👏😎

Hello all! Great news -our programme is available online now! You are able to print food diaries, weekly review tools and meal planners. The programme hand outs are all online also. We love the weekly review tool- it helps you to review your weight loss over the last week including your food diary and goals. Also how to problem solve when things don't go to plan! Let us know how you get on with it http://acelifestyle.org/weight-management/my-weight-matters-online/

Good Morning to all of our participants. How are you getting on with setting SMART Goals? We would like to know what specific non food rewards you give yourself when you achieve your goal? Let us know and share ideas of your non food treats 😀

Hello to all our participants! How are you getting on with reaching your 5% weight loss target?? We set this with you at week 1.

Some participant feedback "I would recommend the programme because it's a lifestyle change that anyone can do. The benefits for me are being felt already. This has been life changing. I couldn't be happier, thank you"

www.shape-up.org/lifenew/index.htm How healthy is your lifestyle? Questionnaire with feedback from Weight Concern.

Good Afternoon to you all. Good news! .....Our online food diaries are now available!! (They are for those of you who are post week 12). They are available on the ACE Lifestyle website – www.acelifestyle.org. You are able to log your weight, count food portions and your daily steps! Instructions for how to get on: Click on the adult weight management tab at the top of the page. On the weight management page you will see a dark blue box on the right hand side -‘Food and Activity Diary for My Weight Matters and Shape-Up Clients’. You will need to set up a log in. As this is a new resource please do send us any feedback.