About the Book

Leading dietician Arlene Normand shares her no-nonsense, tough-love approach to dieting. Her 10 Commandments will give you the tools and the motivation to achieve your weight-loss goals.

This is not a fad diet. In fact it’s not a diet – it’s a practical lifestyle plan. With Arlene’s guidance and sensible advice, you can lose weight – and keep it off forever.

The Long Story

While I didn’t see this so much as a ‘tough love’ approach to weight loss, The 10 Commandments starts from a more practical standpoint when it comes to becoming healthy. Rather than setting you up with a plan you have to follow to the letter, she helps guide you to creating a healthier lifestyle.

Using her ten commandments – ‘eat slowly’ and ‘get organized’ among them – you get a solid base and start to sorting out your health life. While she mentioned a lot of things I already knew, it provided a good refresher for getting me refocused on my health.

One annoyance for me is Normand’s approach to sugar. First, it appears that she is fine with sugar and more concerned about fat. Then she later says that ‘lite’ products often have the fat content replaced with sugar, which isn’t good. This sort of back and forth irked me – especially in a book people who are looking for solid guidance might read.

That being said, this book also provided me with a beautiful light bulb moment when I read: “Your worst time for eating is your best time for exercise.” That small section gave me a completely different way at structuring my exercise time to cut off the urge to munch. (For me, this is late afternoon before my husband is home from work.)

Above all, though, I loved how Normand took Australia’s food culture into account and listed tips on what are healthy choices for Chinese, Indian, Thai, Japanese, etc. I found that quick guide very useful.

The Short Story

I highly recommend this book if you are just getting started on getting your healthy life going. And even if you’re not, this book can be a great refresher to get you motivated again.

Cammy (yes, frequent source of inspiration) recently posted about visualizing what she and life would be like while maintaining a healthier lifestyle at a healthier weight. Starting at the end helped her to make the small changes she needed to get there.

I can attest to the positive things this kind of visualization can create. By looking at my goal, I already know that I am going to be more active. I am also going to cook more often and visit the shops for fresh ingredients more often. I’ll also still be eating pasta.

Looking at things as a lifestyle has still continued to help me since I first talked about it. The biggest difference would have to be not getting so down on myself about mistakes. Oh, I feel really full, which means I ate too much. That kind of thing used to throw me into a depression where I criticized myself until I got distracted by something else. Now? I just remember that I don’t need to eat that much at dinner because I am satisfied with less.

I have a writer’s conference coming up this week. While it is only about five days (two of which I’ll be eating at least one meal at home anyway), I am a little nervous about eating. But, unlike before, it’s only a little nervous. This is perfect practice for healthy social eating (and drinking!), so I’m excited to see how I go.

All in all, I’m reeking of positivity most of the time. That’s a bit strange for me…

Welcome to Mailbox Monday. This is where you pick up your weekly letter from yours truly, answer it either here or on your blog.

Leave a note here if you decide to answer at your blog so everyone who participates can read your response. Easy peasy! So consider this your first reader letter.

This week’s Mailbox Monday question is:

How do you handle people who like to ‘force’ food on other people?

Remember to leave your response or a link to your response on your blog in the comments section!

If you are going to participate on your blog and would like another graphic that is smaller, just let me know. I am happy to put some different sizes up.

In another life, I’m a wannabe novelist who reads a lot. In my writer shoes, I know that reading a lot is one of the ways to become a good writer. From reading, you absorb what it means to have your own voice and style. Reading in your genre teaches you what works and doesn’t work. Reading also gives you a wide appreciation of the craft.

When I am working on a novel (which is pretty much at any given time) I am usually reading at least one book. It helps me to focus on writing.

Now picture me walking up the street to my place, shopping bag with fish in hand, and pausing for a moment as I have a lightbulb moment.

If I read fiction to keep the craft fresh in my mind and to help me stay dedicated to keeping up my writing, then what about the health side of things?

I had my lightbulb moment the other day and, while wishing I had thought of it much earlier, I went to the library for some books. I grabbed what I could find on emotional eating, body intelligence, basics of healthy weight loss, etc.

And you know what? It’s been working.

Reading these books hasn’t stopped me from doing some silly things or eating things I shouldn’t, but it has kept my health in the forefront of my mind. As someone who spent most of her life not giving a chicken’s butt about herself, I need help getting into the habit of thinking about me and my well-being on a daily basis. Reading books on health have helped.

The first book (review coming next week) didn’t really tell me anything I didn’t already know, but reading it every night before I went to be and sometimes during the day kept thoughts of a healthy me fresh in my mind.

In a strange way, it was a sort of accountability, too. I wanted a chai latte, but I felt a bit hypocritical having it and reading about how I should cut my sugary drinks at the same time.

Call it a weird strategy, but if you live a busy lifestyle, this could be the thing for you to do until you get in the habit of thinking of yourself every day…

I would like to say today that my recent realisation that this is a lifestyle I’m creating here rather than a diet to get me where I want to be (and then thus to be dropped) has made everything simple again.

Well, it hasn’t.

It’s that time of the month in lady land and it’s been hard. I don’t know what it is about this month, but the cravings have been hard to deal with. And it’s not even just sweets, which are fairly easy for me to avoid. I just want to EAT.

I’d like to say that my recent ravenous hunger is due to pregnancy, but I’d be lying. I can pretty much only blame the hormones. That being said, I think I’m actually doing okay in the long run. Sure, I’ve done some not-so-great things like turning to chocolate for comfort when my evil kitten decided to forget all his training and drive me up the wall. But there are good things, too, like opting for a Subway 6-inch and skipping the drink and cookie instead of going for a larger and/or more fatty meal. There was also going clothes shopping and letting the ‘ugh’ moments be motivation to keep getting healthy instead of a reason to go into a depressive mud cake bonanza.

So, I’m not there yet and don’t plan to be for a while, but I’m satisfied with where I am at the moment. I’d rather be happy where I am than just satisfied, so I’m keeping on truckin’, but satisfied is a lot better than unhappy.

Welcome to Mailbox Monday. This is where you pick up your weekly letter from yours truly, answer it either here or on your blog.

Leave a note here if you decide to answer at your blog so everyone who participates can read your response. Easy peasy! So consider this your first reader letter.

This week’s Mailbox Monday question is:

Do you read health books or magazines? Why or why not? If yes, which ones do you read?

Remember to leave your response or a link to your response on your blog in the comments section!

If you are going to participate on your blog and would like another graphic that is smaller, just let me know. I am happy to put some different sizes up.

Interviews conducted with people and then the audio is set to claymation…

After thinking long and hard about what works for me when it comes to keeping a healthier life, I realised that one of the things I needed to change was my approach.

As much as I always told myself that every start was my step towards a healthier life, I never considered the step itself to be part of the life. The diet to get to the better life, right? Well, that’s wrong. And it’s finally gotten through to my squishy brain.

You see, I started meal replacements combined with cutting down sweets and carbs along with cutting down portion sizes and adding in exercise. While this sounds like heaps, it’s actually not. I’m taking it tippy toe style, and it’s making a difference.

You see, when you see the changes you make as lifestyle changes (forever changes) rather than temporary (diet) changes, things look a lot better.

When you make it a lifestyle progression:

*A ‘screw up’ isn’t that bad because it’s a blip on the radar that’s going to be going for years to come.
*A ‘screw up’ becomes an opportunity to do things better next time because a lifestyle doesn’t have the pass/fail mentality that a diet does.
*Small losses are not ‘I’m just glad I didn’t gain’, they become incredibly awesome. When you’re on a diet you want to lose weight fast because, underneath it all, there is a ‘how much longer do I have to do this’ feeling. When it’s your lifestyle, it’ll be forever, so any loss is simply a positive.
*When you’re planning for a better lifestyle, you learn to find what works rather than what will get you through.

It’s taken me a long time to finally get to the point where I can view the healthy changes I’m making as forever changes. I’m still a little new to the concept and am finding my footing so I don’t a) slip back into diet mentality or b) use it as an excuse to indulge.

Even though I’ve lost a small amount so far, I know this is the way to go. Not just because I’ve lost weight but because my mood hasn’t been this good for a long time.

Slowly but surely.