Program your mind: Say no!

Here are a series of articles on programming your mind for success. In this first article, we are going to discover how to say no on the foods that you don't want to have!

Do you sometimes regret why you took that roti canai, nasi briyani or that cheese cake? Do you feel bad after that? Do you see yourself saying things like, I will not do this again but see yourself doing it again and again and again.
If this keeps happening, you are sure to lose this mental game. When you lose this mental game, your weight will sure to go up and by no time you will join the millions of others who suffer from overweight and obesity.
To assist you on how to take control of your mind here is a tip.. Don't tell your mind what you don't want, rather tell it want you do want.
If you go to a restaurant and when you have a look at the menu and then go,
I can't have this, I can't have that. When you say you can't have, the mind still excepts it has can have. The reason to that is that 'The mind doesn't understand the word NO'.
So, when you say you can't have an ice cream, you are actually telling your mind to consider an ice cream because the brain can't digest the word 'can't'.
When you say you can't have that carbonated beverage you are telling your mind to consider the carbonated beverage.
Rather than saying to yourself what you don't want, you have to tell yourself what you do want.
So rather than saying you don't want an ice cream, you should say I do want an apple.
Rather than saying you don't want a carbonated beverage, you should say I do want a freshly blended fruit juice.
What you are doing is that you are redirecting your mind on what is not healthy to what is healthy.
When the mind is 'healthy' and strong, it can effect the body to be strong and healthy too.
Try it now and experience changes instantly. Have fun.

Get Moving!

Be careful with your words. Especially when it's 'free'.

We have heard the saying 'you can cheat some people sometimes, you can cheat some people all the time, but you can't cheat all the people all the time'.
Well, this experience is not about cheating, but it turned out that way at that moment when the 'free' was used.
I went to pay my phone bill. As the cashier was organizing the money for me, he said 'sir, we can give you a number for free'. My reply was 'zaman sekarang mana ada barang free'. He was surprised and he answered 'numbernya free tapi...', when my ears heard the word 'tapi' I responded 'hah, tapi..'. 'ye la sir number free'.
Well firstly I don't think he knows what I'm saying. That is how can you get something free nowadays. There is definitely something you will need to get with it therefore, the definition of free is subjective. Maybe we all have our own definition of free compared to the real definition of free. Whatever it is, the conversation with the cashier turned out sour and I pitied him cause it was above 9.30pm and he has to end his working day on a negative note because I was one difficult customer.
The lesson is that be mindful with the words that you use at work especially those that you use with your customers. Yes, we have to follow instructions on doing this at work but it's not one size fits all kind of a thing. Everyone is different therefore observe their responses.
The next time you don't get a respond that you were expecting, do the following:
1. Pause,
2. Quickly run thru what you did, if you know the answer, repair it, otherwise
3. Clarify with the customer why they responded that way, otherwise
4. Keep quiet and just move on.

Get Moving!

Blame it on your taste buds.

Recently my colleague spent me a Mars chocolate bar. I was so happy. Knowing myself, I would have never made a conscious decision to get the bar so it was great that there was someone who got it for me.
At a glance, I rejected the Mars but being Malaysian and a colleague I decided to accept the bar of chocolate.
I was expecting it to be ok for me however after a few bites I realized that I did not enjoy the taste of it. I really don't know why. Maybe it was the stickiness? Maybe it was the caramel? Or maybe it was the chocolate? I'm not surprised if it was the chocolate cause there were few occasions when I had chocolate and I didn't enjoy the taste. At the end, when I finished the last bite, I felt the 260 calories wasn't worth it.
After a while reasoning out with myself I got the answer. The reason why I didn't enjoy the mars bar was probably my taste buds. My taste buds just don't prefer the taste of chocolate. So, I will not have the trouble to burn of the extra calories. However, if your taste buds enjoy the taste of chocolate, then I think you might get yourself in trouble. And besides chocolate, if your taste buds go well for ice cream, cookies and other products with high in sugar, then confidently I can assure you that you probably have a tough time burning of the extra calories.
So, I guess taste buds are evil too. They maybe a deciding factor on what you choose to eat and if you decide on an unhealthy choice, now we know why. Gosh, this must be trouble because if your taste buds enjoy not only chocolate but also ice cream, cookies and other products with high in sugar and fat, then guaranteed we will be putting on the kilo's due to excess calories and if mixed will low physical activity, that's just recipe for disaster.
Gosh, all this problems and it all started from the taste buds???

Celebrity weight gain.

Recently the bollywood scene was surprised by the appearance of the overweight Manisha Koirala. She was pale, hagged and terribly overweight.
The media swarmed her like as tho an artist cannot be succumb to this crisis. Well, thats where the problem lies, that an artist cannot put on weight!
An artist or also known as a celebrity is expected to take care of their weight. If you wanna go out there in front of everyone, you must be able to carry yourself well. What better way like being in shape.
Is the world so cruel that one cannot make a mistake? I'm not sure about that but what I'm sure is that it makes good news.

...most difficult to bear...

Last week I attended a family function to realize that one of my uncle had recently suffered a cardiac arrest or commonly known as heart attack. When I met him, he was weak, had difficulty in staying upright, hunched and talking very softly.
He is now in his early sixties. He was a very active individual and in the last function before this that I met him, he was so alive. He was moving every where during the function in making sure everything went well. He was even the mc of the function and did a great job in entertaining the crowd.
I can see that life has taken a 180 degree turn on him. Studies has shown that when something traumatic like cardiac arrest hits, a person mobility or movement is seriously impaired and that will slowly deteriorate the overall health. This takes place because the body has become weak, largely because the cardiac or heart muscle has been injured.
So, it's a downward journey from now on for him. I wonder if he will ever recover? Honestly, when I met him, I said a short prayer hoping he gets well cause the sight was just too saddening.
I wonder where did he go wrong? Could it have been his lifestyle? Has he been consuming too much saturated fats or has he been physically inactive? Or maybe his genes? Was it hereditary that kicked in? Whatever it maybe, the suffering that he is going thru was most difficult to bear. Who wants to be weak and slow when once you were so active! How do you think it feels to be immobile???
To make matters worst, what if there are others who are dependent on him? How are they going to thru life without him?
So, like how my late grandfather mentioned.. Health is the most important asset in your life!

Difficult life.

Today while I was doing some work, a thought crossed my mind. The thought of why do some people just have a difficult life?
It's a very depressing thought actually. It sucks so much of energy just thinking of the question. My eyes move from left to right to left again looking for answers in my brain.
I was thinking, do we consciously seek for problems or problems are just there? Are we lack in something, like knowledge or experience? Do we know enough? Are we able to analyze effectively and come up with real solutions or are we thinking of quick fix approaches? How's our attitude? Are we pessimist or optimist? And can having a different attitude be significantly different?
How come some people can live with so many problems? Are they in denial? Sometimes I see the ones who are in denial seem to be happier. What matters here? Is it the results or the relationship? Sometimes we are so frustrated that we really feel to make tough decision but because of the relationship we hold back. At times, I observe how do some people can get to one problem from the other and look completely fine. Do they have the muscle? If the have the muscle, what is it call?
How do some people manage it? How do some people manage their time and efforts? Are we gonna be in more problems cause this current problems are still not solved yet? Do we need to solve all the problems?
Omg.. I can't think anymore.

Overweightities

Have you been suffering from overweight problems for some time? Has weight always been an issue for you? Is it difficult to lose weight?
If you have these problems, therefore you have overweightities! It's a chronic problem where you have been overweight for some time, for at least 3 months.
Overweightities also includes if you fall in the obese category. Studies show that there are so many reasons why one becomes overweight. Most of the time the problems are having not enough time to exercise or having difficulty in getting the right choices of food. Some may also complain about having lack in technical knowledge or expertise.
However the real problem lies right deep in themselves. Deep within the human psyche, somewhere parked within their values.
Values are what's important to you. Which means our priority. Our priority forces us to do things and gets us to develop the sense of urgency. If something is of top priority, chances are you will get it done instantly. Why? Because it's of top priority. So now, ask yourself if managing weight a priority to you. If it is, then chances are that you will not be overweight, and you will be taking good care of yourself. However if there are other things that matter most to you and if managing weight is somewhere bottom in the priority list, then chances are you might be having overweightities.
So, what's your priority?