What is PASSWORD THERAPY?

Password therapy is when passwords are goals you're working towards, meaning you need to use the goal every time your computer locks or everytime it's necessary to change your password. 

Using your goals as passwords keeps them current and fresh in your consciousness. It's a constant reminder of what you want.

Passwords like Save20aweek, Walkeveryday, Nosugartoday, Drink8glassesofwater can do wonders towards reaching your goals.

Does chewing gum help promote weight loss?

Studies have shown that chewing gum can help promote weight loss.

In a University of Rhode Island research study, gum chewers ate 68 fewer calories at lunch, plus burned 5% more calories than non-gum chewers.

A Louisiana State University (Dr Paula J Geiselman) study, found  that chewing gum helped control appetites and decreased daily intake of food by 40 calories.

Cutting 100 calories a day can result in loosing up to 10 pounds a year.

Reaching for a piece of gum instead of high caloried junk food, can help you loose up to two pounds a year.

What are 10 easy tricks to stop cravings for food?

These have all been tested in research:

1) Tap your forehead (distraction)

2) Change how you think (MRI scans show that people who think about the ill effects of poor eating, increase the activity in the part of the brain responsible for self-regulation.

3) Play a computer game for 3 minutes (based on Elaborated Intrusion Theory)

4) Imagine colours, smells, sounds which will ground you in present time.

5) Surround yourself with pictures of food (The Instagram Diet).

6) Go for a walk (or any physical activity).

7) Eat protein rich breakfasts.

8) Chew gum.

9) Sleep well (frontol lobes which help provide self-control are less active in the sleep deprived)

10) Pay attention to your emotions.

How do successful dieters make weight release permanent?

Recently a new study was presented at the Obesity Society  ( a subset of the National Weight Control Registry ). 3000 people who successfully  managed their weight were asked to answer yearly questionnaires over a 5 year period. These 9 techniques seemed to stand out:

1) Tracked their food intake.
2) Counted calorie or fat grams or used commercial weight-loss programs to track food intake.
3) Ate about 1800 calories a day, and less than 3000 calories a day.
4) Ate breakfast regularly.
5) Ate similar foods regularly and didn't splurge much on holidays or special occasions.
6) Walked about an hour a day or burned the equivalent calories on another activity.
7) Watched fewer than 10 hours of TV a week.
8) Weighed themselves at least once a week.
9) Limited the amount they ate out ( average of only 3 times a week).     

click here for description of Your Wellness Buddy  coaching package designed to help with sustaining change

Are there ways to improve self-control?

Yes, there are ways to improve self-control.

A main way to maintain self-control is in how we think.

Psychologists have also found that self-control is strongly linked to successful behaviour, higher self-esteem, better interpersonal skills, and better emotional responses.

Dr Fujita from Ohio State University studied ways to improve self-control and came up with the following 3 ways of thinking:

1) Global processing: Those focusing on the big picture (the forest rather than the trees) found self-control easier. For a person wanting to improve diet, this might mean to focus on the goal of good health and how each individual decision about what to eat contributes (or detracts) from that goal.

2) Abstract reasoning: Those focusing more on the end rather than the means. For someone wanting to stick to exercising this might look like focusing on the vision of ideal physical health, rather than the details of the exercise.

3) High-level categorisation: Those focusing on why they were doing something rather than how. This might look like breaking a project into stages and focusing on the goal/why of each stage, rather than specific task of that stage.

The researchers found that those able to stay in touch with the big picture were better able to:

• Avoid instant gratification.
• Make a greater investment to learn more about their health status.
• See temptations as beer & TV as negative (ie distracting from health/exercise).