I just wanted to share this article I find highly helpful to me. Ill post my morning ritual after I have been successful for 30 days already

How to Set Up Your Own Morning Ritual

Here are a few suggestions for how you can set up your own morning ritual to get an extra hour out of the day and invest it somewhere useful:

1. Pick a Wake-Up Time. I decided to go with 5:30. Depending on your schedule and social calendar, you might want to go with an earlier or later time. I find that waking up earlier tends to afford more quiet hours, but if you live by yourself this might not be a big issue.

2. Pick Your Investment. With this morning ritual I wanted to invest the gained time in reading. I’m a big fan of consuming ideas as a way to hack reality. Other good investments for your morning ritual include:
* Exercise - Jog, hit the gym or stretch to start your day.
* Projects - Get some work done on your novel, website or building the next killer app.
* Study - Learn something new, build skills or practice an ability.

3. Set a 30 Day Trial. The core element in changing habits for myself has always been the 30 Day Trial. This great tool, first proposed by Steve Pavlina, forces you to focus on the hardest part of changing behaviors–getting through the initial conditioning phase.

4. Get Moving. The hardest part of waking up early is getting over that initial grogginess where you might easily drift back to sleep. My solution was to do a few pushups right after waking up. By getting yourself moving you can boost your heart rate, making it easier to keep from falling back to sleep.

5. Procrastinate the Unimportant. Aside from putting on clothes and using the washroom, my morning ritual started immediately after I woke up. Don’t delay your ritual by eating breakfast, answering e-mail or having a shower.

6. Write it Down. As always, I find writing down any habits I take on to be helpful in making them stick. If you don’t write down exactly when you’ll wake up and what you’ll do when you wake up it’s easy to go back on your commitment.

7. Stay Consistent. Stick to your wake-up time or investment plan for the whole thirty days. If you skip a day or two throughout the trial you sabotage your efforts in making the habit stick. When I did this that meant a very early start to my Christmas morning and New Years Day.
8. Work on Something You Care About. This should be so obvious it doesn’t need mentioning, but it’s easy to setup a habit because you feel you should rather than you really want to. Studying because you feel you need to rather than reading more books about subjects that fascinate you. Pick an investment that you’ll be really happy about waking up an hour earlier to work on.

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(I want to make sure it is said like the ones you see in the Lucky Me commercial LOL).

I’m in a good mood today — I woke up at 1AM and haven’t slept yet! BUT! Im in such a good mood because I finally had some creative therapy in me, I yanked out some layouts which I like and did something new for a change. It felt really nice.

I also had a productive work day yesterday — and I am planning to keep that going this week. You know what extremely helped? Jotting down notes.

Like This:
Blog 10AM.
Finish 10 goals by 11:30AM.
Do not surf until you reach 5 goals.

Those types of lists
Ok time is up! It’s 8AM and I need to work

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Today, I stopped eating carbs and drinking soda - I went cold turkey. This whole thing - taking-my-time-taking-things-slow is not helping me, and I heard my Dad told my sister, “There is no such thing as stopping little by little. Make it a no big deal.” He was telling her how to stop smoking. So I instantly thought, it must be like that with my weight loss. I dont need to make this a big deal - I don’t need to pick a date, make a whole mumbo jumbo ritual and everything. So today, I told myself, “This is it.” I ate a BIG breakfast and had a chicken wrap for lunch. I didn’t drnk COKE the whole day. By this time, I should have drunk 4 cans already. I know I will go through a stage of depression and adjustment - my body will “need” the carbs and the sugar (and the caffeine), so I hope I can decide which alternative foods I can have. I need to undergo this - body detoxification. Of course, I can always take Dual-Action Cleanse formulas to help me detoxify and speed up things - so I will not go through the “withdrawal” stage. Plus, there are some toxins that only it can remove. These toxins, when removed, will give a sense of increased energy and decrease my bloating, the dullness in my hair and skin and my tummy bloat (most especially!).

I hope I can last a week without rice and soda. I know I can go through dieting easily if I can manage to survive without them. Take not Im still talking about this being a “diet”. I am in no way taking having no rice as a lifestyle change. But for now, with me being obese already - I really need to do this. Wish me luck.

Technorati Tags: diet, Dual Action Cleanse

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Ok, time for a confession. I originally planned to go full force with dieting this month - meaning, no rice nor soda (of any kind) starting September 1. I guess you already know what happened :(. I did curb myself from drinking soda - but Im really having a hard time givin up rice - how can I not eat rice during dinner or lunch?! I know I need to plan my meals now, very strategically. I read in an article that a famous actor ate broiled chicken (without skin), boiled fish, oatmeal, fruits and no sweets nor salt for six months and he lost more than 70 pounds. Can I sacrifice six months of eating like that? LOL. I think I cant. There has been news about garden of life products though.

This product line has been founded by Jordan Rubin, with the desire to see people hear the life changing message of health and wellness. His own recovery from a digestive disease is testimony to the life changing effects of whole food nutrition. Their products Primal Defense, Omega Zyme, and Perfect Food are the number one selling probiotic, digestive enzyme, and green food products in the natural products industry. Their whole food supplements contain micro-nutrients, fats, proteins and fibers that our bodies need. It is a known fact that most dietary foods today are depleted of those nutrients because of processing.

It has always been recommended that we supplement our diet with whole food nutrients. The Garden Life product line also offers supplements for weight management. They are recommending the use of fucoTHIN, which actually helps metabolism of breaking down fat in white adipose tissue, meaning the true excess fat :). The advantage of this, being an all-natural concentrate, is that it doesnt affect the CNS (sleeping or waking system) so you would not have trouble sleeping. The product is derived from Fucoxanthin. Fucoxanthin is a carotenoid (like lutein and lycopene), which is a powerful antioxidant that protects cells from free-radical damage. It is the pigment that gives brown seaweed its characteristic color and also participates in photosynthesis (the conversion of light into energy). It is found in several different types of brown seaweed.

Now, what I am advocating here is not the product nor the line but the choice to go with all-natural supplements or products if you need help starting to lose weight. As a key, these are taken as supplements - meaning, they do not replace the healthier eating choices you will make or the exercise you still need to do.

As I keep reminding myself, this is all about a lifestyle change - not a month to month diet choice.

Technorati Tags: Garden Life products, fucoTHIN, fucoxanthin, weight loss, lifestyle change, diet

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Most of you have already read my struggles with weight loss. I have said time and time that I will it one micro-step at a time - so that there will be no setbacks. Right now, I have to be honest and say I feel Im still on step 1. My main struggle - cutting off Coke completely is like a yo-yo. I have drastically cut off to 1-2 cans of Coke a day (Coke Light), with days I dont drink at all, but I have to say I need an alternative besides drinking pure water - I hate drinking water (I can drink liters of it but still hate it). My Mom, ever since she hit 50, has been conscious of her weight. She is now into a no-rice diet, no peanuts, and if ever we go to dinners or parties, she makes sure to drink green tea before going to bed. She suggested that I drink green tea - not the commercial type you see, but the authentic green tea.

Ordinary tea, like those you normally see and drink, actually came from the leaves of the camellia sinensis plant. Now, there are three kinds of tea: the green tea, the oolong tea and the black tea. The difference between the three is the stage of fermentation they went through. The leaves used to make green tea are steamed then baked allowing no fermentation to go through, thus the color green. The oolong and black tea have both undergone stages of fermentation, hence the black or brown colors.

The main advantage of drinking green tea is the amount of antioxidants it has. An antioxidant - as you probably have heard, is know to make you look younger, your skin more radiant or even make you lose weight. This is because the primary function of an antioxidant is to bind radicals found inside our body and take it out - those radicals are those that come from smoking, stress, bad foods. In short, all bad components. So it makes perfect sense that antioxidants really make you look young (and that it has been incorporated in most cosmetics).

No wonder Japanese women have great skin :). So I have my green tea - while I cannot guarantee I will like the taste, knowing it is good for me, I will drink it, even daily.

Do you drink green tea? What kind?

Technorati Tags: green tea, antioxidant, diet

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I got a scare last night.I came home with a splitting headache and the urge to vomit. I was really really nauseated. I was also light-headed and felt like the half of my head was about to burst. I thought it was just a migraine from being in front of the computer all day but 30 minutes later, I was experiencing palpitations. I was really getting scared because I initially thought - “Hey, can it be that Im experiencing high blood pressure?” It is unfortunate that no one at home knew how to take blood pressure but me! Edil was extremely upset and told me to really start taking care of my health. I just downed a tablet of Biogesic and tried to sleep. Thankfully, when I woke up, it was gone. Im thinking three things: either: a) I need to get glasses, b) My wisdom teeth are grinding causing me migraines (it’s possible), or c) There might be some underlying causes, to which I really pray not to be true.

So today I wasnt able to get any sweets from home, and Edil warned me to not even consider drinking Coke at work. I think he really is serious about me dieting already. He even told me he is going to speak with a colleague of his to ask about possible multivitamins and weight loss supplements. On my part, Im doing some research online on how I can get by without carbs (I need to eliminate white cards and sugars) and I bookmarked a free calorie counter to help me start. Initially, articles say Im going to go through a rough period for three weeks as my body adjusts to no sugar, but after my body gets used to it, I can go exercise already after I go through the initial rough phase.

I think there is no time for baby steps. I need to take one huge step and then take a leap. Wish me luck!

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Because of my quest for a lifestyle change, I have explored options for me to be physically active. Being in front of the computer most of the day and being stationary really has affected my posture and over-all disposition. I feel like I have no energy all the time. Enter yoga. Yoga will be definitely be good for my bad back and let me stretch my joints. Yoga mats are very easy to bring to work too. I found out that there is a yoga class being offered three buildings away from where I work, and they have a class two hours before my office time - perfect! I have scouted around for yoga equipment and it seems I only need a yoga mat! Im quite partial to this one - nature collection yoga mats.

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Thank you so much for all your kind words on my last post. It has been a while since I received more than five comments :D.

Today was a good day, I have not drank Coke but I guess I will later, but Im going to stick to one can a day, if I really have the urge. No sweets for me either. It’s not that I am controlling not eating them, but I guess I need to change routines. Instead of checking e-mails first thing upon arriving work and eating junk and coke, I mingle with my officemates. At least it distracts me, by the time I reach my desk, it’s time to work, and before I know, I need to eat dinner :).

Baby micro mini steps
I did some scrap therapy too.

Just click it for a bigger picture with credits

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Here was my status all day in YM:

And I’ve been thinking about my situation, after my physical examination and my boxing aspirations, I got into thinking - this is all a cycle for me. I want to lose weight - I try for a month - I lose a few pounds - I gain it all back.
Nothing’s changed.

Old habits die hard. And for me to set myself that “I will go on a diet”, it is just something that covers a specific period of time. After that time elapses, where will my diet go? Will I go back to eating as much.

You see, I need to change the way I live. And boy would it be so hard. Let me count the ways…

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