Low calorie drinks and soups just don't work long term

Birds of a feather is back, and sadly some of the pounds Pauline Quirke lost have returned. She is no longer paid by Lighter Life because she has returned to normal eating and the weight piles back on. Even more sadly, according to a news report, many of the consultants who work for these companies have also regained their weight. It's okay to use short term, maybe for a flat bikini tummy, but long term you damage your metabolism. It's a fact that we keep searching for quick miracle cures and there are none, other than changing lifestyle, lose weight gradually and take exercise

Smoking damages your brain

New research suggests that smoking does harm to your brain. Not surprising really as nicotine stops pure oxygen reaching the brain. That's why smokers who stop the habit realise they are thinking more clearly. Strange how smokers think smoking helps with clarity when in reality less clarity happens. Same with drugs and alcohol of course.

Now is the time to stop for good. Wake up to the real truth that smoking does no good whatsoever, and you get short term gain from it. I can't imagine now what it was like when I did smoke, but know I would never be tempted again for any reason.

Happy families?

It's probably a well known fact that many rows are caused within families at Christmas. Sometimes family feuds cannot be reconciled. It's no point trying to patch things up if you hold such different beliefs and values with each other. Many families do argue over such petty things, and then don't talk to each other for years. Maybe even forgetting what the row was about in the first place.

Communication is always the key to working things out. Doing your best not to try to prove you are right and they are wrong. Just accepting that you have different beliefs and values, and you or they not always agree with each other.

Some people are willing to do their best to work things out. Others are stubborn and refuse to work it out, so they go on being angry and bitter.

I wonder how many parents always hope that their children will come to their senses one day and get in touch, if only to communicate. It may be too late one day to do so. Have courage to get in touch

Acupuncture in the ear helps with weight loss??

According the Daily Mail online, acupuncture helps with weight loss. This idea has been doing the rounds for at least 35 years! I had a go at this in 1976 and believe me, it simply had no effect on me. Maybe the reason was that I had little faith it would help, did not believe it could. I still think the same way, although I do know acupuncture helps with many other health issues.

People become desperate for help with weight loss, but the only thing that really works is eating less. Even gastric bands and gastric bypasses don't always work and there are many failures with this procedure.

The reason people struggle so much with weight loss is because they make food more important than health. We know this to be true because those people who have serious health problems still cannot reduce the amounts they eat. It is because we tend to eat emotionally, and eat inappropriately. Sound familiar to you?

Today I saw people queuing up to have their nails done in a salon. I wondered if having false gel nails made you feel more confident. If it does that is great. If it makes no difference to how you feel about yourself, maybe it is time sort out your emotions and get more out of life.

Freudian slip

A client asked me if I was Freudian. I said, no, I am completely genuine!!

Do Christmas songs give us false hope?

I was running the Christmas song 'Have yourself a merry little Christmas' in my mind and changed some of the words to fit in with NLP beliefs.

The song goes 'From now on your troubles will be out of sight'. Well, tell that to someone who has loads of debts! The debts will still be there when Christmas is over, and do you want them to forget they have bills to pay, which in effect would make the troubles a whole lot worse?

The songwriter would have made it more realistic if she/he had written:

'Just today your troubles can be a little far from sight'

Just a bit more realistic, don't you think?