Adam Up

Yes indeed, because our next delivery date would be Christmas Day and the way things are working out this year, we shall be sending you through one more edition this year before we begin the New Year and welcome in 2009.

In keeping with our theme for getting things set up for the New Year with our Health Challenge 2009, today, I am going to be direct… I am firing out a fabulous healthy eating pattern that anyone can use to enhance their eating habits for the coming New Year!

Last week the guys here at Adam Eason personal development — Keith, Rob, Gary and I — went for our Christmas get-together… We had a very traditional Christmas curry washed down with plenty of beer and then watched a Prince tribute band called ‘Purple Rain’ at a local live music venue, and it was fab…

Since then, I have eaten out a great deal and been attending various Christmas events and we are still a week away from Christmas day! Then comes Boxing day! My healthy eating habits have vanished in this short space of time!

I know that mid-afternoon on the 25th, I’ll be bloated… I will have drunk too much… I know the same will happen on Boxing Day too… And then when catching up with friends before we welcome in the New Year… I love the time of year… But my waistline does not and my marathon training disagrees too!

So what better than to whistle in The Healthy Eating Pattern?…

We all know it, don’t we? Even the most health conscious amongst us… Even the most highly evolved amongst us fall foul of it…. Sometimes we just don't eat as healthily as we should in order to have the health and fitness that goes hand in hand with a vigourous and energetic life. You regular Adam Up readers like your vigour and vitality, don’t you? We go for it in life, don’t we?

Do we have a good strategy for healthy eating? Some of us may not. You know what though? Everything you need to know is there being carried around with you. Your body has all the wisdom and knowledge it needs to have an incredibly healthy and energetic life.

Eating in a healthy way involves listening to the 'wisdom of the body' so that we can recognise when we feel 'full' and 'empty'. In so doing, we learn to eat for nutrition, not for some psychological value: comfort, nurture, relaxation, etc.

When we were born, this instrument was used very overtly… We screamed and cried when we were hungry and our parents responded to the call of our bodies and we used that very special sense of appetite accordingly.

Then as we got told to have three meals a day… And then it changed into skipping breakfast and having a big late meal… Or whatever habits we got into as life progressed… With different values being placed upon food at different times… The sense of true appetite and listening to our bodies got lost along the way…

Eating in a healthy way also involves us making good (or bad) decisions, doesn’t it?

You see, we need to make good choices on a regular basis that take into account long-term pleasures and certain criteria such as our well-being, energy levels, health, etc., rather than short-term pleasures that in turn become long-term problems if we are not careful.

Healthy eating also involves the shifting of beliefs, transforming limiting beliefs into empowering beliefs, getting over the old eating 'programming' of childhood, and building supportive beliefs about self, body imagery and so on… Those are the kinds of things we deal with in therapy, coaching and in my revised ‘Think Yourself Thin’ audio programme.

Let me talk you through this lovely healthy eating pattern in simple steps today then…

Step One: Firstly, you want to become aware of your eating time representations.

“Whoa there Adam… What on earth does that mean?”

Let me explain this further for you… Answer these questions to yourself: How do you know the time has come to 'eat'? Do you see, hear, or feel something? Imagine that you have worked all day: how do you know the time has come for lunch or dinner?

What are your personal set of signals at certain times that result in you choosing to 'eat'? Jot these down on paper or in your mind so that you can come back to them later.

Step Two: When you have a good idea of that, proceed to become aware of your tummy… Check the feelings of and in your tummy. What do you feel?

What finer qualities do you experience within those feelings? Check whether your stomach feels full, empty, or some degree in between. Also check for the overall feelings, is there any tension, relaxation, calmness, or even some turbulence, for example?

Have a good period of time here and explore the sensation within your tummy and tune in to your tummy.

Step Three: Having explored the sensations within your tummy as much as you can, now explore your thoughts about those sensations.

Here is a key question to ask yourself; what would feel good in my tummy right now?

Ask this of your body and mind and trust in its wisdom…. Then notice what response you get.

Think of an available and healthy food item (e.g., turkey sandwich — loads of them coming up soon — vegetable soup, salad, etc.) and imagine eating it. Go through this with as many items as necessary to find the most appropriate one. The one that really sits well with your tummy’s sense and your minds thoughts in relation to your entire being.

Recall the sensations that this item creates. So, become aware of all the sensations in your body that you feel when you think of that food in your tummy.

Step Four: Compare the feeling from this healthier, favoured food item with the feeling you had in your tummy before you imaged eating anything. Which feels better?

Imagine what your body will feel like over the next few hours. If you get a "No" that it won't feel better, decline that food. If you get a "Yes," then accept it. Notice that you decide now based on which will give you the best feeling over time.

What you are doing here is allowing your body and mind to work together for your higher good.

Step Five: Explore and compare using a non-healthy item. There are going to be plenty of those coming your way over the next couple of weeks too… All those boxes of chocolates, biscuits, cakes, crisps, roast potatoes, gravy and much, much more…

In your mind, just imagine an unhealthy food item, like any of those I jut naughtily mentioned and feel that in your tummy…. Experience what it feels like now. Experience what it feels like in a few hours. Experience and imagine what it feels like tomorrow. Imagine what you think and feel about it over time.

Now go ahead and compare these feelings with the feelings you got from the earlier steps (three and four). Notice which feeling you find more pleasurable. Which choices make you feel better? Which choices contribute to a bigger, better and longer term healthy sensation of well-being?

The information you are overtly giving to yourself here is helping to programme your mind for the longer term just by running through this.

Step Six: When you have considered enough possibilities, notice the food items that make you feel the best and imagine yourself taking these choices into your future. In your mind, imagine a variety of future moments, where you are making the healthier and better decisions and choices… Where you are having long-term health and well-being.

Get it lodged into your brain that this is how things are going to be as far as your healthy eating habits are concerned…

Of course, with the festive season coming up, there are going to be all kinds of choices to make, and I insist that you still allow yourself to feel good and happy in life… That you enjoy eating and being merry… Heck, you get one life, right?

Then as the Christmas dust settles, think about installing some new healthier eating patterns and habits based upon what makes you eel better about yourself in the long term and throughout the New Year ahead… And if you want to really build upon this, come and join my New Year health challenge… I should be calling it a health give-away though, shouldn’t I?

10 Powerful Tips To Stop Smoking

So, if any of you that plan to stop smoking in the New Year feel left out by the emphasis placed on eating habits this week, then here is an article I wrote a few years ago to help stop smoking habits…

Whether you are using Nicotine Replacement Therapy, Hypnosis, or just Cold Turkey, these strategies and hints are for aiding you to stop smoking and are sure to assist you in helping your neurology change and thus enable you to stop smoking with ease. It is up to you to ensure that you do these things to really enhance what you are doing, the more effort you put into these exercises, the easier it is to stop smoking for good.

Powerful Stop Smoking Hint 1

Being a smoker is like cycling with stabilisers attached to the wheels, you can find it hard to be balanced without smoking. Now, when you cycle freely again, the natural balance returns.

When people smoke, more than half of what they breathe is fresh air — pulled through the cigarette right down into the lungs. So if you feel any cravings you can instantly overcome them by taking three deeper breaths. Imagine breathing from that space just below your belly button. Whenever you do this you put more oxygen into your bloodstream. This means you can use deep breaths to change the way you feel instantly and give you power over the way you feel and help you let go of those old cravings and thus making it easier to stop smoking.

Powerful Stop Smoking Hint 2

Next, think now of all the reasons you don't like smoking, the reasons that it's bad and the reasons you want to stop smoking. Write down the key words on a piece of paper. For example, you experience breathlessness, it's dirty, filthy and your clothes smell, your friends and family are concerned, and it's expensive, unsociable, and so on. Then, on the other side of the paper, write down all the reasons why you'll feel good when you've succeeded in stopping. You'll feel healthier, you’ll feel in control of your self, your senses are enhanced, your hair and clothes will smell fresher and so on. Whenever you need to, look at that piece of paper.

Powerful Stop Smoking Hint 3

Next, we are going to programme your mind to feel disgusted by cigarettes. I want you recall 4 times when you thought to yourself, "I've gotta quit," or that you felt disgusted about smoking. Maybe you just felt really unhealthy, or your doctor told you in a particular tone of voice, "You've got to quit," or somebody you know was badly affected by smoking. Take a moment now to come up with four different times that you felt that you have to quit or were disgusted by smoking.

Remember each of those times, one after another, as though they are happening now. I want you to keep going through those memories and make them as vivid as possible. The more vivid you make those memories, the easier it will be to stop smoking. See what you saw, hear what you heard and feel how you felt. I want you to take a few minutes now to keep going through those memories again and again, overlap each memory with the next until you are totally and utterly disgusted by cigarettes.

Powerful Stop Smoking Hint 4

Have a think to yourself about the consequences of you not stopping smoking now, if you just carry on and on. Imagine it, what will happen if you carry on smoking. What are the consequences? Imagine yourself in six months time, a year's time, even five years' time if you do not stop smoking now. Think of all the detrimental effects of not stopping right now and how a simple decision you make today can make such an impact on your future.

Next, imagine how much better is your life going to be when you stop smoking. Really imagine it's months from now and you successfully stopped. Smoking is a thing of the past, something you used to do. Keep that feeling with you and imagine having it tomorrow, and for the rest of next week. In your mind, imagine stepping in to that non-smoking version of you and feel how it feels to be a non-smoker.

Powerful Stop Smoking Hint 5

Also, your mind is very sensitive to associations, so it's very important that you have a clear out and remove all tobacco products from your environment. Move some of the furniture in your house and at work. Smokers are accustomed to smoking in certain situations. So, for example, if you used to smoke on the telephone at work move the phone to the other side of the desk. Throw away ashtrays, old lighters and anything that you used to associate with smoking. Make your environment conducive to stopping smoking.

Powerful Stop Smoking Hint 6

Smokers sometimes use their habit to give themselves little breaks during the day. Taking a break is good for you, so carry on taking that time off — but do something different. Walk round the block, have a cup of tea or drink of water, or do some of the techniques on this programme. In fact, if possible drink a lot of fruit juice. When you stop smoking the body goes through a big change. The blood sugar levels tend to fall, the digestion is slowed down and your body starts to eject the tar and poisons that have accumulated. Fresh fruit juice contains fructose which restores your blood sugar levels, vitamin C which helps clear out impurities and high levels of water and fibre to keep your digestion going. Also try to eat fruit every day for at least two weeks after you have stopped.

Also when you stop, cut your caffeine intake by half. Nicotine breaks down caffeine so without nicotine a little coffee will have a big effect. Drink 8–10 glasses of water (ideally bottled) to help wash out your system.

Powerful Stop Smoking Hint 7

You were used to using cigarettes to signal to your body to release happy chemicals, so next we are going to programme some good feelings into your future. Allow yourself to fully remember now a time when you felt very deep ecstasy, pleasure or bliss, right now. Take a moment to recall it as vividly as possible. Remember that time — see what you saw, hear what you heard and feel how good you felt. Where abouts in your body were those feelings, imagine turning them up and spreading them through your body to make them more intense.

Keep going through the memory, as soon as it finishes, go through it again and again, all the time squeezing your thumb and finger together. In your mind, make those images big and bright, sounds loud and harmonious and feelings strong and intensified. We are making an associational link between the squeeze of your fingers and that good feeling.

Okay, stop and relax. Now if you have done that correctly when you squeeze your thumb and finger together you should feel that good feeling again. Go ahead do that now, squeeze thumb and finger and remember that good feeling.

Now we're going to programme good feelings to happen automatically whenever you are in a situation where you used to smoke but now you stop smoking.

So, next I'd like you to squeeze your thumb and finger together, get that good feeling going and now imagine being in several situations where you would have smoked, but being there feeling great without a cigarette. See what you'll see hear and take that good feeling into those situations without a need for a cigarette.

Imagine being in a situation where someone offers you a cigarette and you confidently say, "No thanks, I don't smoke." And feel fantastic about it!

Powerful Stop Smoking Hint 8

Get social support. Your commitment to stopping smoking for the rest of your life can be made much easier by talking about it to friends and family and letting them support you. They will congratulate you on doing so well too! You really did stop smoking.

Powerful Stop Smoking Hint 9

Be aware of making excuses for yourself. Some people talk themselves into smoking, especially if they encounter a stressful situation and in the past they used to deal with it by smoking. If those old thoughts pop into your head, shout the word “STOP” in your head, to stop the thoughts from progressing. Nicotine just stresses your body more and is like that itch that can never be properly scratched; the more you smoke, the more you have to. So say “STOP” and steer clear of old slippery slopes.

Powerful Stop Smoking Hint 10

Reward yourself. Congratulate yourself. Feel how good it feels to stop smoking and be a non-smoker. Treat yourself each time you get past a certain milestone; the first week or first month, the six month target. Let yourself know that you did something really special here.

Keep on using your brain, stretching it and helping yourself, by running through these exercises time after time; you are sure to be able to make it easier and easier and successfully stop smoking for good.

Modern Fumbling in Bed!

Hahahaha… Thank you to everyone who sends the jokes in and posts them up in the members area, I love getting them and it makes me smile regularly writing them up here each week.