How often do you tell yourself you should do more exercise? And how often have you decided to lose weight, only to crumble at 4 in the afternoon with a big bag of crisps or a donut?

We often feel so bad about ourselves. We beat ourselves up because we didn’t call our parents, or because we didn’t do our work right, or because we said something wrong to our neighbour, you name it. And what happens when we feel so ashamed and defeated? We curl up on the sofa and hide away from our friends. Or we turn the television on and watch all kinds of stuff we aren’t even interested in, only to numb our feelings and avoid all those bad thoughts. Or we raid the fridge or finish that bag of candy.

But of course, all of that doesn’t help… because we still feel bad and stressed. And when we feel like that, we don’t even really enjoy the thing we use to get away from our troubles. The chocolate never tastes as nice as it does in our thoughts, and after a whole bar, the stress is still there.

More and more research proves that stress hormones (adrenaline and cortisol) can actually make you fat. They do not only get your body to store more fat around your waist, these hormones will also make you crave sweet things and carbohydrates. So we end up in a negative spiral. We eat because we feel bad, and we feel bad because we eat too much or too unhealhty and gain weight.

If we feel better about ourselves, we get more active, and if we get more active, it is much easier to make healthy choices

Two simple exercises to help you to reach your goals the easy way.

How does it work? Well, take some time to focus about the things you did well this week and you will start feeling a lot better about yourself. You might notice that you did actually go for a walk. And that you did eat a lot more vegetables this week than you would normally do, and that you had a great time when you were out with your friends.
Thinking about the good things in your life, the things you did well, but also the things you are grateful for, make you feel a lot more optimistic about the future. And once you get going, you will start noticing that after each walk you did, you came home feeling much better. You were so much more relaxed, and you were proud of your achievement of climbing up that hill. Your hormones will change too, the stress hormones will go down, and your happy hormones will go up.

And when you feel good? You are much more likely to call that friend to chat, or to do something nice for yourself. You might go for another walk, eat a nice big salad for lunch, snack on an apple or just relax in the sun in the park. You will teach yourself that doing nice things for yourself will make you feel better, and that will make you want to look after yourself better, and that will make you feel better……

You get it? Beating yourself up is going to stop you from reaching your goals, but positive feelings can help you make it easy to reach those goals. So thinking about the things that went well and remembering what you are grateful for not only help you to get happier, they also help you to get healthier!

Need some examples? Here are some I wrote down yesterday:
– I called my friend, we met up for lunch and we had such a nice chat we completely forgot the time;
– I finally started writing this newsletter;
– I went to the park and had a really nice walk, and I did some high intensity interval training, which really made me feel good;
– I helped a lady find her grandchildren who she couldn’t find and were playing somewhere in the park;
– I met some really nice people on the way back from the park, and we had a really nice chat;
– I cooked a really yummy lunch for myself yesterday, full with wholesome veggies and fish;
– I read some really interesting articles, and I learned lots of new ideas and things that can help you and myself feel better!

Research shows, that if you write down at least three things that went well every night before you go to bed for a week, you will still feel better 6 months later!!!

Happiness challenge for this week: Spoil yourself and buy a nice little notebook, something pretty, something that makes you happy just by looking at it. Now every night, before you go to bed, write down three things that went well that day.