Motivation Weight Management

What an emotional story we have for you in the latest podcast. Elaine, who did an incredible job losing 3 stone, 4 pounds. She was close to having to get a hip replacement, facing serious surgery she instead decided to take control of her eating, once and for all. Focusing not on what she was eating, but why she was eating.  She improved her health to the point where she has been able to come off medication and doesn’t need to have the surgery anymore. It is people like Elaine that make what we do worthwhile and we think you will agree that her story is an emotional rollercoaster that just grabs you.

Welcome to the second episode of Connecting the Dots, a three-part podcast series that aims to help parents and their adolescent / teenage children to understand and address some of the most pressing issues they face both at home and in society today. The theme or title of today’s podcast, Understanding Risk Taking & Peer Pressure in Adolescents, is a natural progression from the 1st podcast where we looked at body image and self-esteem.
I’m absolutely delighted to have Stuart Wilson from Zest Life back in the chair with me and I have to say, Stuart’s input is invaluable. My message to parents and adolescents: please tune in, you will be so much the better for it. We may not have all the answers but oftentimes, knowing how to identify the problem and being able to handle it in the most appropriate and effective way is the critical part.
Also, if you think you are the only parent / adolescent facing these challenges. Rest assured; you are not. There are communities out there with support frameworks to help you. Remember…..
You are not alone.
So, to the topic at hand – understanding risk taking & peer pressure in adolescents.
Risk taking is actually part of the process of developing as a young person.
Before we get to risk taking, we need to spend some time looking at the various development stages from baby through to adulthood. As toddlers, kids are embedded. That is, they are utterly dependent on their mother and father for everything. At the age of 5 or 6 when they start school, they are starting to disembed a little. The disembedding is an entirely natural process where the child is learning how to decide for themselves and make their own choices, be it friends or activities that they prefer. This is normal behaviour and it’s good, though naturally, for some parents it can be emotionally challenging.
This disembedding stage lasts a while and leads into the interiority stage. Typically, this is around the first year in secondary school. This is where the adolescents begin to define their own friendships and groups. It’s all about fitting in and belonging.
This interiority stage lasts for 5/6 years from which they progress to the integrated stage, where they feel they’ve landed, kind of know who they are and perhaps, know what they want to do with their future.
Then they launch into adulthood. Depending on how embedding, interiority and integrated went, this has a defined impact on whether the launch into adulthood is a good one or a bad one.
Adults can get trapped in the interiority stage and addressing that issue requires assistance.
____________
Adolescents want to speed through interiority. They will try to fit in with various groups and to do so, may engage in risk taking or activities deemed appropriate by the group – alcohol, vaping, sexual encounters.
So, they will take risks and it’s important to note that risk taking is normal. It’s good that they are in this state but as parents / adults we have to be careful of the risks we allow them to take.
You are not alone.
What can we do that will help our children move safely through the interiority stage where risk taking is part of that life?
Talk. Talk. Talk.
As obvious as it may seem, talking is the most important thing you can do.
Parents can often feel that their children don’t want anything to do with them during the interiority stage. The opposite is the case and you bridge this by bidding. Bid for their time by continually offering your time to listen and to help. To be there.

This podcast series, Connecting the Dots, is about awareness and trying to find out why adolescents are overeating in the first place.
We find that there are three main reasons or triggers that are at the root of why adolescents are overeating. Bear in mind, overeating is but one of the escape or safety valves that adolescents may turn to.
In today’s podcast we will deal with the first trigger and that is Body Image / Self Esteem and the Influence of Social Media.
We need to be very real about what is happening to our young people and how challenging the environment is for them to be growing up in.
Adolescents are growing up in a world of social media and can only see one world. The parents grew up prior to this super connected, always-on world, so they can see two worlds. Parents can call this the online world or the internet world but for the adolescents it simply is the world.
Body image is hugely impactful on your people’s lives. This manifests itself in two ways: How they see themselves and what they think of themselves when they see themselves in their world.
You are not alone.
The culture in which adolescents are growing up is a pressurised and instantaneous one. So, pretty much everything that see thy can get their hands on pretty quickly. There is a keen competitiveness attached to that – FOMO.
Parents have inadvertently added to this. If you’re like me, you are coming from a generation that grew up knowing what it’s like to have to do without. We naturally want the best for our kids – there is a genuine goodness and kindness behind it but as a consequence, we are adding to the pressure.
Also, incorrectly, we used to think that body image was exclusively a female issue but it’s very different now and body image is a significant issue for boys. The pressures of what they look like or should look like is incredibly difficult to deal with and manage.
As parents, rather than managing or criticising that culture, we need to understand it.
‘Culture’ is used to encapsulate the world of the adolescent. Their world. Culture today is ever-on, it has no down time. From a generational aspect, say 30 years ago, you had to go out of your way (that is, get off your backside) to find information on any given subject, be it to your library, newsagent or to borrow a book or magazine from a friend.
Today, that search and discover cycle is shortened to an on-demand model with an over-supply of near perfect bodies and superstar lives.
Mobile phone usage is not an adolescent issue – it is a household issue. There are various levels of addiction but a basic level, many teenagers are addicted to their phones. Protracted absence from the phone, in most instances, leads to an inability to think straight other than to get the device back.
As parents, we have to role-model this. So, the big question for parents – when and how often do you use your mobile phone at home in front of the family?
You are not alone.
This leads on to the concept of the numbing effect. Th numbing effect originally came from watching TV. You simply zoned out or got engaged in something that was showing on the TV, resulting in a numbing effect. Remember, 30/40 years ago, many households had one TV with only 1 or 2 channels).
But with mobile phones, the numbing effect has an impact on the central nervous system. This is due to the back light on the mobile or tablet device screen. This back light leads to an over production of cortisone which leads to increased stress levels. Our serotonin levels also drop and to counteract the stress and the lowered serotonin levels, we look to paths of least resistance which leads to coping strategies, and one of them is……..eating.
For adolescents this is a problem. As mentioned previously,

This is the remarkable story of Eoghan Brennan who lost 6 stone with Motivation Weight Management. Eoghan, who just recently turned 16, was topping the scales at just over 19 stone / 120 kg in 2021. Over the course of his weight loss programme in our Swords clinic, Eoghan shed an amazing 6 stone / 38 kg.
Eoghan tells his story in the podcast below and it’s aptly titled, ‘A Teenager’s 6 Stone Weight Loss Journey’.
There are two audiences that this podcast is aimed at.
First of all, and the most important is other teenagers who are struggling with their weight. For you, this is an important reference point as there is hope and there is a way out of your current situation. One thing to note – where you are now is only temporary. Fix that in your mind. It’s temporary and we can help you lose that weight and move on to where you want to be. Listen to Eoghan’s story and you’ll find it parts of it should resonate with your own situation.
Secondly, the parents of the teenager that probably has had several false starts in trying to lose weight. It’s a story that’s played out over and over so you and your child are not alone in this. It’s not easy and the traps are many but with the right guidance and framework it is manageable, and your son / daughter can lose that excess weight in a controlled and safe environment. You too should listen to Eoghan’s story and hear what the story sounds like from a teenager’s perspective. As adults we’ve forgotten what those teenage years were like so it’s important to listen to Eoghan. At just over 10 minutes, his podcast, ‘A Teenager’s 6 Stone Weight Loss Journey’ is short but it’s well worth the listen.
In addition to the podcast, please feel free to download our short eBook, ‘Teenage Weight Gain: What You Can Do?’
On the day that we recorded Eoghan’s podcast, his mother Roisin was in attendance. Aisling Connolly, our clinics director and chief podcaster-in-arms, asked if Roisin, as she was in the clinic, would she like to tell how she viewed Eoghan’s 6 stone weight loss from the mother’s side. Roisin agreed and what followed is another great podcast. A parent’s perspective is also a critical consideration for any other parent in a similar situation and we are very grateful to Rosin for donning the microphone and telling her story.

The Laura Grant story is a story for the ages.
There is something in this story for everyone, small and big nuggets of advice that will help you in so many aspects of your life – weight loss, physical and mental health, and being able to face up to and overcome issues of confidence and self-belief.
Laura Grant joined Motivation in 2019, just after the birth of her third child. As Laura herself noted, it is a very stressful, busy and full life being a mother of a baby (x3). Her immediate experience of Motivation was the me-time, that time and space she now had to herself. For the first time, she realised how manic your life can be, as she herself says, “how busy, not only your head, but how life itself is.”
Through her weekly consultations, it was evident that stress was a significant contributor to Laura’s overeating. Motivation helped Laura to identify her stress triggers and to take on board new coping mechanisms to deal with stress. This transformed Laura so much so that when I describe the stressed individual I first me, she replied by saying that she didn’t recognise that woman any more.
As Laura remarked, “It’s as if you are talking about someone else.”
Laura quite rightly points out that she still gets stressed but she doesn’t let it implode on her anymore. She’s now able to identify her stress triggers and is able to manage them very well.
It’s important to note that stress occurs naturally in all humans. It’s how we cope with it that is crucial to our physical; and mental wellbeing.
I mentioned triggers above and this leads me quite nicely into the next part of Laura’s story. Laura was aware of issues in her life – she was overweight so there was obviously something amiss but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it.
With our help, Laura identified four key triggers that were at the root of her overeating:

* Loneliness
* Stress
* Perfectionism
* Guilt

Laura is one of eight children and she’d describes herself as a socially orientated kind of person so she was astonished when loneliness was identified as an issue.
Laura’s Mental Weight report identified loneliness as an issue and when she saw it in ‘black and white’ it made her, for the first time, question what was happening and going on in her life.
Words can sometimes not do the justice that such a revelation deserves. For over 25 years, I’ve sat with thousands of clients who’ve had those light bulb moments, when like a flash of intense bright light, they are startled and awakened to a whole new world, a world in which they are now in control.
When I asked Laura about negative and positive motivation, she agreed that when she started with Motivation, she was engaged mainly with negative motivation, that is thoughts and behaviours associated with failure and lack of self-belief.
Laura has tried any number of weight loss programmes – she’d tried everything and nothing worked for her. Her next thoughts were noticeably negative – am I setting myself up for failure, again? or will I be able to do this?
Laura’s fears are not unique to her and fear of failure is normal. As humans, we are predisposed to being influenced by how good or bad events or experiences went for us in the past so it should come as no surprise that fear of failure with weight loss is so common.
The tools we use and share with our clients are the tools that equip you for life. Weight maintenance is a journey and our programme enables you to embrace milestones (weddings, special events, holidays), not fear them.
Laura now feels empowered as she no longer has that fear of not having achieved what she set out to do. What she now has is a sense of purpose and positivity that sees her through and beyond those significant miles...

In this Motivation Assist Podcast, we turn the table as Meabh Coyle becomes the interviewer and Aisling Connolly the interviewee.  The subject of the podcast is the Motivation Initial Assessment.
Every person that comes through the door of one of our clinics has to complete an initial assessment. That initial assessment is a critical step in helping clients to reach their desired weight and just as important, to maintaining their desired weight once they reach their weight loss target.
The podcast walks you through what you can expect at your initial assessment and provides great insight into how useful and beneficial an assessment it is, all for only €25. In fact, while we call it an initial assessment, it is in fact a 45-minute consultation as you walk away with a wealth of information about yourself and aspects of your life that you can adapt or change straight away.
The first thing you do is to complete a Personal Impact Form in the clinic and we use this as a discussion document so that the weight loss consultant can get some background to your lifestyle and eating habits. It’s important to understand this as we tailor each weight loss programme specific to each client’s lifestyle and personal circumstances.
We will look out for the key trigger(s) that made you book the assessment and examine what you feel are the key reasons behind your weight problem.
We also look at WHY you want to lose weight. This can be for an event like a wedding but the WHY can also be an emotion such as wanting to feel better or to have better self-esteem.
Interestingly, there is a marked increase in those people attending for health reasons; in that they are more aware / better informed as to the health risks from being overweight.
The initial assessment caries out a number of key measurements:

* Body Fat Analysis

With the body fat analysed, we identify what more and more people are interested in finding out about and that is visceral fat, that internal fat which is the most dangerous to your health.
We measure your visceral fat with our Tanita Scales (this can be done regularly so you can enjoy watching the visceral fat rating decrease and come into the normal category, which is 1-12). A rating of 13 or above is a warning sign, which we always point out in your initial assessment.

* Height and Weight for BMI or Body Mass Index

We measure you BMI which is an estimated healthy weight for your height.
If you’re 14 stone or 89 kilos and a 6ft tall man, you’re probably a healthy weight, but if you’re the same weight and much shorter than that, like a 5ft tall woman, you’re going to be overweight.
One thing is for sure, the ideal weight certainly isn’t one size fits all!

* Metabolic Age

Your metabolic age is how your basal metabolic rate (BMR), or how many calories your body burns at rest, compares to the average BMR for people of your chronological age in the general population. BMR is just one measurement of a person’s overall health and fitness.

* Blood Pressure

Blood pressure is an accurate indicator of overweight and we take your blood pressure at every consultation and along with the other measurements, map them and as with most clients, watch them fall over time to within in a healthy range for your height and weight.
For most people taking the initial assessment, we find that this is the first time that they have been able to open up and talk about their weight issues. By and large this is not a planned outcome but the private and personal nature of our 1-1 initial assessment affords people the opportunity to talk about how they really feel about being overweight.
For many, being overweight is a deeply personal issue and the group-based programmes are not the ideal venue for this type of discourse. What we generally find is that the initial assessment hel...

This is a podcast about weight loss procrastination.
Before we dive in, what exactly is procrastination?
Procrastination is the action of delaying or postponing something so it’s not just a weight loss issue, it can be anything.
How many of you have said something like this, “Here I am, 4 stone over weight. If only I had done something about this when I was just a stone heavier.”
Obesity over the years has been described as a disorder or a disease of procrastination.
Why do humans often procrastinate and in particular, why do overweight individuals put this off and not fix their weight problem sooner, rather than later.
There is no one easy answer but there are common thinking patters that Maebh points out in this podcast. She opens by (briefly) taking the discussion away from weight loss procrastination and instead focussing on something else that you must have put off doing. For Maebh it was putting off cleaning her attic for the last 18 months. She argues that when we’ve negative connotations associated with the activity we are about to undertake (it’s hard, it’s boring, etc), this in effect acts as a block and causes us to …… procrastinate.
Now apply this negative connotation approach to your own weight loss efforts. If you package the same negative thinking, then you’ll probably think:

* it’s going to be hard
* I’m going to have to give up things that I enjoy
* It’s going to be boring

Now, try and switch it up and think of what’s going to be good about doing it:
If it’s Maebh’s attic:

* It’s going to be clean
* She’ll be able to see stuff
* She’ll have a sense of satisfaction of a job well done
* She’ll feel more on top of things
* It’s done

With weight loss, it can be any or all of the following:

* You’ll have more energy straight away
* You’ll start to feel in more control
* You’ll feel more youthful
* You’ll be able to do more things
* You’ll be able to wear nicer clothes

A lot of people procrastinate because they have a fear of failure. They are waiting for circumstances to be just right before they do something.
Jump onto the Weight Loss Procrastination podcast below and listen to Aisling and Maebh as they provide some solid advice on how overcome procrastination and move forward with your weight loss efforts.

Over the past 25 years, Aisling Connolly has consulted with thousands of men, women and teenagers on a face-to-face basis in our clinics here in Ireland, and overseas via our online weight loss programme, On The Go.
In that time Aisling has amassed a wealth of first-hand experience and knowledge in weight loss and weight management, and in this aptly titled ‘How To Lose Weight And Keep It Off For Life‘ podcast, she has distilled that experience into 6 key points for you to consider.
For those of you that have tried any number of previous diet regimes or programmes, then this podcast will ring true on so many levels. You are not alone and that is such an important point to make. The challenges you face are not unique to you and are shared by many other people who find themselves in the exact same situation.
Aisling provides great insight into these 6 critical issues and if we were to recommend one thing it would be this – please set aside 35 minutes as that is the time you’ll need to listen to this podcast from beginning to end. Pick a spot at home that is quiet and a place that you will be relaxed and away from the hustle and bustle of life. Why? It’s important to invest the time in YOU. For so many people, they put themselves last and selflessly ignore their own emotional needs. This podcast requires your attention so that you can begin to make those lifestyle changes that YOU need.

* Learn why you feel motivated at the start of your diet but then lose motivation after a few weeks, usually after a slip.
* How to control STRESS/EMOTIONAL eating during these challenging times.
* Learn how to stop procrastinating and making excuses as to why you won’t start your diet plan.
* Understand why most diet programmes fail as they only treat half the problem, treating the symptoms not the cause.
* Why fast weight loss is clinically proven to help give better long-term results.
* Learn about your LIMITING BELIEFS, how they may be holding you back and how to overcome them.

This podcast was originally broadcast as a webinar on November 12th and for ease of playback we have saved the audio part of the webinar as a podcast file.
The How To Lose Weight And Keep It Off For Life Podcast also references our FREE ebook, ‘Break the Cylce of Yo-Yo Diets.’

This is a remarkable weight loss story! Jennifer Wilson was born with spina bifida. She endured many operations in her early years but kicked on and enjoyed a working and family life, the same as you and I.
Jennifer never had an issue with her weight but about 18 months after her daughter was born, she began to have significant discomfort with her right hip. As Jennifer says it was “bone on bone” and as her mobility was dramatically reduced, she began to lead a very sedentary lifestyle. The lack of movement lead to a feeling of despondency and that in turn lead to eating the wrong foods and too much of them – take aways and comfort foods. There was a reluctance on the part of the medics to replace her hip until she was a little but older – at this point she was only in her mid-thirties.
Eventually her hip was replaced in her early forties but despite her positive outlook and feeling better, she had a bad fall and this caused a major set-back. She withdrew into herself and didn’t go out much. The poor eating habits returned and her weight began to creep up again. Also, not that she’d never thought about managing her weight better, she just didn’t commit herself to doing anything about it. Her pattern of feeling low and comfort eating was an all-consuming depressing cycle.
At this point, Jennifer was tipping close on 18 stone / 114 kilos. Bear in mind that Jennifer is 5ft 1 inch / 154 cm. Jennifer’s BMI reading was 47.6 and her official BMI result: At this BMI, your risk of weight-related health problems and even death, is severe.
Jennifer began to look online for options and advice on what to do about her life-threatening situation. What’s interesting and also so, so familiar about Jennifer’s research is the ever-present fear of failure that paralysed her many attempts to pick up the phone and call Motivation.
What’s revealing and also so, so familiar is how happy and content Jennifer was at having made contact and attended the Beacon clinic for her first assessment.
As Jennifer says, “It just felt great. I knew that I’d made the best decision, you know, that this was going to work for me.  And I haven’t looked back. This is the best thing I’ve ever done for myself.”
This podcast reveals the inner turmoil and excruciating pain that Jennifer endured in the months and years up to her losing over 7 stone / 44 kilos with Motivation. Jennifer’s story is one of remarkable perseverance and an indominable personality that once it was channelled correctly, was able to, literally, move mountains.
Join Jennifer Wilson as she recounts her incredible weight loss story in the podcast below.
Before you do, a question:
What’s holding you back?
Think of this when you listen to the podcast.

This podcast will address what we call a weight loss plateau, the reasons behind it and some of the tools we have that will help you to deal with it and successfully move on.
What is a weight loss plateau?
A weight loss plateau is where you are losing weight and then it stops for some unknowable cause / reason. According to the Oxford Englsih disctionary, to plateau (out) is to ‘stay at a steady level after a period of growth or progress.’ In this instance your progresss would be the week-in, week-out steady weight loss until you plateau.
Plateaus are a normal part of the weight loss process. When we look at the weight loss graph of clients it is generally not linear, it will be in step-wise fashion – lose weight-plataeu-lose weight-plateau. This is normal but for some people this plateau can be naturally frustrating where, despite you best efforts, there is not weight loss in that week.
What’s going on?

* First of all, do not panic. Have faith that this plateau will pass and that you will continue to lose weight. Because it will pass.
* Switch things up. Open your Motivation Food guide and look through the rich array of foods that you can add to your weight loss regime. Try new vegetables. Check out the Motivation website or the mobile app for new recipes. Change is key. Try new protein sources. You may be getting most of your protein from meat and chicken. Try fish or plant-based proteins. We do know that when pope change their food that it tends to kickstart the metabolism as well.
* Shake up your routine in terms of exercise. It is not a requirement to exercise to lose weight but if you do it will considerably improve your weight loss results.
* Are you keeping track of things by using your Food Diary? If you are not keeping track of your intake then calories can easily creep back up, thus undermining your weight loss efforts. We can’t stress how important it is to maintain your Food Diary. Those that do are 50% more likely to lose weight and to maintain that weight loss.
* Complacency is a common occurrence – ‘I know everything and I’m doing ok’. Take the opportunity to go back to the clinic, weigh in, reinvigorate your enthusiasm with the help of your weight loss advisor.
* Check your fibre intake! Variety is important so look to broaden the range of vegetables that you eat.
* Cut back on salt. We advocate an unprocessed diet but we acknowledge that due to time constraints, people may have to elect for processed food on occasions. If so, pay particular attention here as salt-rich foods can lead to water retention which can act as a foil to your weight loss efforts.
* Are you drinking enough water? A bad day for a client might be one glass or water or none at all. Overlook water intake and it will have a detrimental effect on your weight loss efforts. Dehydration causes fatigue and you won’t be as motivated to exercise and in addition, and we don’t know why, but when you are hydrated, your metabolism fires at a higher calorie burn rate.
* Are you overwhelmed or stressed? This can happen during a plateau and the negative voice can creep back in. You can spend a few days becoming aware of your negative thoughts or perfectionist ways of thinking.
* Try and note them in your daily diary and you might be surprised how often they are coming up. Your audio programming files are important here. Reconnect asap with your weight loss advisor and they will help you address this issue.

If you’ve fallen off the wagon altogether, don’t set yourself excessive or unrealistic goals.
Don’t say you are going to hit the gym five days a week.
Start small and build on that. Commit to small changes and celebrate each one along the way. All these successes add up.
GET EXCITED!

This podcast title Slip And Learn: How To Deal With Perfectionism And Guilt is probably one of the more important podcasts we’ve recorded.
The first and probably most import thing to note – everyone has them, slips that is. Let’s get that out of the way – you’re not on your own.
We learn from our mistakes and it is inherent in the human condition that we don’t always get things right, be it at the beginning, middle or close to the end of any programme (weight loss, stop smoking, etc).
It is how we deal with these slips that is crucial to our long-term success (and happiness).
At Motivation, from day one with new clients, we get them so sign a commitment form and we let them know there will be slips along the journey – you are only human. We show them how to think about slips differently as most clients will have tried and failed any number of conventional weight loss programmes due to quitting after a slip or series of slips.
Thinking about slips or failure differently empowers our clients to be able to slip, to learn and to move on without missing a step. No pangs of guilt of feelings of failure.
As Maebh points out, when somebody relapses, it’s not if but when and it’s either going to go one of two ways:

* If they have been listening to their weight loss advisor and if they have been using their Motivation tools, they will react quite well to the slip. Most importantly, they will recognise and see it as part of the process and they will just carry on with their journey and get back on track. Learning to deal with perfectionism and guilt is a core aspect of the programme.
* The other option is those people who beat themselves up. They too are perfectionist but unfortunately haven’t used the tools and worked on the issues. Critical to this point is Maebh’s observation that perfectionism is a trait that can be worked on; people do change and you can work on this side of yourself.

The perfectionist’s outlook is that if they are not doing it perfectly well all of the time then they shouldn’t do it at all.
The reality is we all relapse or slip.
The reality is that as weight loss advisors we know that when clients stick to the programme 70/80% of the time they will be successful.
You will deviate and you will relapse and it’s important that when this happens you act with compassion towards yourself.
How do you know if you are a perfectionist of if you suffer from feelings of guilt?
For Maebh, her perfectionism and feelings of guilt were both identified and confirmed when she completed the Mental Weight Questionnaire.
Maebh adopted the mantra that it’s ok to make mistakes but as she points out, it took a while to trickle down from the head to the heart.
Now, Maebh is able to park a mistake (be in parenting, eating, whatever) and get on with it.
This podcast runs to just over 18 minutes and it’s an invaluable tool in helping you to learn about slips and relapses but most importantly, how to deal with perfectionism and guilt.

This podcast covers how best to approach setting weight loss goals in 2020 and it’s also worth noting how it covers the challenges new year goals bring.
Key to getting the most from this podcast is taking on board Maebh’s assertion that change is a skill that has to be learnt and practised. It takes time and as Maebh points out this is not what the general public want to hear. They want change and they want it now – why not as that’s what all the quick fix and fad diets claim.
The genuine reality is that, and maturity most definitely tells you this, is that is takes time and you can’t rush these things.
It’s important to point out that losing weight is a positive change that you are making and it’s important to try and enjoy the journey rather than seeing it as an endurance test. If you pigeon hole it as an endurance test you may well be setting yourself up for failure. You frame of mind is critical to success.
Be careful of guilt and perfectionism. If for some reason you slip up don’t throw the towel in. Slips are common and happen to most people. It’s how you deal with the slip that is important. They key is to see the slip for what it is and move on. We will help you with that process.
As both Aisling and Maebh point out, your ambition or goal to lose weight is best approached by breaking it down into a series of small steps.
What’s important to recognise is that when you start out on your weight loss journey, we will be there for you, supporting you on every step.
While the end goal will be ever present, we work with you to focus and celebrate the many minor achievements along the way. We will help you to feel better both physically and mentally.
Another important consideration for people when looking to a new year goal is to think about how they want to feel rather than the goal itself.
If you were able to achieve that weight loss how would that make you feel and how would that transfer into your daily life:

* Better health
* More energy
* Less stress
* Feeling really proud

All these things are far more effective that focussing on the end weight loss goal as such.
Underlying this is our approach to changing the habits and behaviours that are causing you to overeat in the first place.
By working on those habits and behaviours you will come to notice significant changes in your mental wellbeing with the physical weight loss as a very happy companion.
Setting weight loss goals in 2020 need not be so daunting or off-putting. Previous years and previous failures can be consigned to the past by signing up to a Motivation Weight Management programme.
Enjoy the podcast.

After years of fat being health enemy number one, we now know that sugar is the main cause of obesity and the overweight epidemic. And it’ a highly addictive substance that the body has very little use for it. The World Health Organisation has lowered its recommendations for daily intake for both adults and children.
Some key takeaway from The Truth About Sugar Podcast:
We don’t need sugar. There is no nutritional value in sugar. It provides empty calories and we already get sufficient calories from our food.
Reactive Hypoglycaemia. A lot of Motivation clients, when they start, will say they have a problem with sugar. They don’t realise that physically what they are doing is taking a drug every day and by consuming sugar they are feeding their addiction.
What happens is their blood sugar soars through the roof. They feel a bit better which is then followed by a crash and they don’t realise they when they are experiencing a low that it’s their body craving sugar.
Many products in our supermarkets are pumped fill of sugar. We now know that this is a significant contributor to obesity but on top of that, heart disease as well where the arteries are hardened.
The average Irish person downs about 100 grams of sugar per day. This equates to 25 teaspoons of sugar and the WHO says, at most, we should only be consuming 6 teaspoons per day.
For a child, two Weetabix biscuits contains about half of one teaspoon of sugar but a bowl of Frosties contains about 9 teaspoons, already above the recommended daily intake.
There are ten teaspoons of sugar in a tin of coke.
There are thirteen spoons of sugar in a large tin of Red Bull.
All this excess sugar is a significant contributor to heart problems, issues with immune systems and it accelerates ageing. If you want to begin to look after your weight, then start by checking your body mass index or your BMI here.
Scientific research and evidence support the claim that sugar is as addictive as cocaine. Sugar hijacks that part of our brain that deals with dopamine and reward. So, basically, what happens is our brain gets a lovely little pleasure kick after the sugar and it feels good (like cocaine). You get that kick and the body gets used to that amount of sugar and the brain craves more of the same drug to get the same effect.
We hold our client’s hand as they come off sugar and we’ve lots of helpful tips:

* Sugar is sugar so don’t replace it with other forms such as honey, for example. Have replacements that we know are very low in sugar such as our own Motivation protein bars.
* Anything that has 5g or less per 100g of sugar of product on the labels is a low sugar product item.
* Alcohol. If you are going to go sugar free you need to park alcohol for a while. It would be a disaster and will lock you into your sugar addiction.
* Exercise. It’s one of the best things to do when you are coming off sugar. Even a little bit on a regular basis.
* Forget processed foods in jars or tins. They are very high in sugar. Use natural products where possible.
* Eat often so you don’t get the blood sugar dips.

Please note, it’s only a matter of a couple of days and you’ll feel so much better.
Our advice is to take step back today and make a conscious decision to tackle your sugar habit. It will be one of the best short-term and long-term health decisions you will make.
Listen to The Truth About Sugar Podcast below.

This is Sinead’s weight loss story and how important it is to stay in touch with your clinic so as to help maintain your target weight.
Sinead started with Motivation and weighed 10st 10lbs. She comfortably hit her target of 9st 6lbs and then we didn’t see Sinead for a while. Summertime came and Sinead disappeared.
As Sinead says, “I thought I’d manage ok but one of my triggers (for overeating) is lack of routine and in particular, having the kids off school.”
Sinead found it difficult to set aside the time necessary to look after her weight maintenance or self-care as she calls it.
When Sinead returned after the summer her weight had crept back up to 10st 3 lbs and more importantly, her Mental Weight read 14st 10lbs.
For Sinead, the Mental Weight was crucial in helping her to pinpoint the root causes of her weight issues. Her key triggers are guilt and perfectionism that she admits she continually has to work on and as she says, “if I don’t carve out that self-care, I find that it just creeps back in so easily.”
Over the summer break Sinead let the old habits creep back in and chief among them was reward eating.
It was only when Sinead returned after the summer that she realised that she had been focusing more on the scales rather than “what I’m thinking and why I’m doing it.”
Sinead says she wouldn’t have figured that out without coming back and connecting with the professional help here at the clinic.
Sinead had lost her way completely with hypoglycaemia. As she remarks, hypoglycaemia is a very effective way of addressing the issues raised by the Mental Weight report. Namely, how’s she’s feeling and the choices and behaviours that she can and will make when she has hypoglycaemia under control.
What’s interesting listening to Sinead is how much she underestimated the negative impact of not managing hypoglycaemia. Once she got that under control lots of positive things started to fall into place.
Sinead was absent for just over a month and as Aisling points out, it’s illustrative of the damage you can do to your weight loss efforts in such a short amount of time. Aisling quite rightly points out that it is critical not to let guilt prevent you from picking up where you left off. Obviously, the sooner you get back on track the better but even if it’s been some time, it’s never too late.
Sinead’s parting words of advice: keep in touch because your clinic team will provide the support to help you though this journey. And it is a journey.
As we always say to clients, weight loss is a journey because once you reach your target weight then it’s all about maintenance. Our maintenance programme, that Sinead will attest to, provides the regular maintenance check-ups that are key to helping her stay on track.
You can listen to Sinead’s weight loss story below.

In this podcast, the ‘Dangers of Intermittent Fasting and The High Fat Keto Diet‘, Aisling and Maebh talk about intermittent fasting and the high fat keto diet and in particular, why they are not recommended for anyone looking to lose weight. The results are only short term and the overall effects are negative.
Maebh starts by pointing out that the attraction of these extreme diets is that they appeal to the quick-fix desire that exists in most people: I want to lose weight and I want to lose it now.
Maebh adds that here at Motivation we do not prescribe or follow any quick-fix solutions because they do not work. This isn’t just a Motivation point of view, our viewpoint in the shortcoming of these quick fix / extreme diets is proven from research from across the world; research that clearly demonstrates the ineffectiveness of these diets in maintaining weight loss in the long-term.
Intermittent fasting
With regard tointermittent fasting, our bodies are not designed to fast. We are not designed to go long stretches of the day without eating  or taking nourishment.
A great way of visualising this is to think of our metabolism as a fire that must never go out. Here at Motivation we believe in continually stoking that fire to keep it burning.
On top of this there is the hunger that you must endure. This is counterintuitive to how our bodies work. We need energy to function, to carry our commitments at work, at home or wherever. How can you be expected to be functioning properly if you are denying your body the fuel it requires to maintain its core functions.
There is any number of different intermittent fasting regimes. Some skip breakfast, some skip lunch, some skip dinner, some skip all meals for a day or two. The Snickers ad hits the nail on the head but for all the wrong reasons. If you do not feed the body you will suffer from hypoglycaemia and you will, as sure as night follows day, crave sugary foods – cue Joan Colins.
Protein is like petrol or the fuel on the fire. Deny your body the core and primary fuel and the fire will fade and lack the heat to keep you going.
Food is energy.
Food is fuel.
This is an undeniable fact and yet there are proponents of intermittent fasting that promote and advocate for these extreme, quick-fix and ultimately ineffective regimes.
High Fat Keto Diet
At Motivation we recommend a ketogenic diet but is must be stressed that our ketogenic diet is not to be confused with the high fat keto diet, a diet we do not approve of. The high fat keto diet is reliant on really high saturated fat-rich foods.
What’s alarming is that so many people will stick to this extreme diet without first consulting with a healthcare professional.
The high fat keto diet was made popular by professional cyclists that follow this regime not to lose weight but to maintain their body weight and build energy reserves that they can draw upon to deal with the excruciating pain and physical demands of races such as the Tour de France or the Giro d’Italia or any of the one-day gruelling criterion races during their racing year.
The high fat keto diet is another extreme and highly restrictive diet and we do not recommend it.
Maebh puts it succinctly when she says, “the high fat keto diet is a disordered way of eating.”
With close on 25 years in business, the Motivation ketogenic plan is scientifically proven to be healthy, sustainable and highly effective for weight loss in the long-term.
List to the ‘Dangers of Intermittent Fasting and The High Fat Keto Diet’ 13-minute podcast below...

Noeleen’s weight loss story is one of unimaginable sadness but through all her suffering, as she says herself, she is on the mend.
Noeleen lost her only son to cancer in 2015. The loss was compounded by the fact that he was fit and active, played sport, didn’t smoke or drink. How could cancer strike her son down? As brave as he was and as incredible a fight that he put up, he eventually succumbed to the disease after a three-year fight.
They were four in a family and it was now down to three. They were devastated. In dealing with the grief, Noeleen turned to food. In Noeleen’s mind food was the lesser of two evils so she consciously chose food over alcohol.
Inevitably the weight piled on. As it so happened Noleen’s daughter was a target member at Motivation and she could both see and understand what was happening to her mother.
The cycle of eating to comfort-fill the void was further compounding the problem as Noeleen was not able to get a good night’s sleep due to sheer volume of food she was eating. Her daughter, from time to time, would gently nudge Noleen to contact Motivation but to no avail. The penny dropped for Noleen one evening when as she was looking at a picture of her son and up popped an ad for Motivation. The realisation of her situation and the emotional turmoil literally poured over her and she broke down and cried.
Fast forward to Noeleen’s first consultation and as she says, “because my weight loss consultant had me so focussed and I felt there’s help for me here and that I wasn’t on my own.”
Noeleen, with the help of Motivation and her own one-to-one weight loss consultant, changed her relationship with food and reached target with a weight loss of 2 1/2 stone / 15.87 kilos.
However, Noeleen then let some of her old habits creep back in and she noticed the weight begin to creep back on. She realised that she not only needed to lose the weight but also needed to understand how to maintain the weight she had lost –  Noeleen got back on plan and more importantly, back on target.
Between the jigs and the reels, Noeleen’s job circumstances changed and as it happened, Motivation was looking for a consultant for its Beacon clinic.
Today, Noeleen is a weight loss consultant here at the Beacon. She brings her life’s experiences, empathy, deep understanding of the programme and her very good nature to help Motivation clients unravel their tangled relationships with food and to reach and maintain their target weight.
Noeleen’s weight loss story is one that will continue as life itself does and if there is one key takeaway from this story it is Noeleen’s’ resolve and determination to live a healthier therefore happier life.
For our part here at Motivation, it is somewhat humbling to be both a facilitator for Noeleen’s weight loss journey and in helping her to find comfort during the dark days.

We were delighted to welcome Dr. Paula Gilvarry to the podcast chair to tell us about her weight loss journey. Dr. Gilvarry is recently retired and is also the author of a most amazing recipe book, ‘Doctor on a Diet;’ more about that later.
According to Paula she was dieting for most of her life, probably since the age of 16. She lost weight and put it all back on again. As she said, “I’d tried every diet in the book.”
Over 20 years go Paula contacted Motivation and was successful in losing weight but unfortunately, she put it back on. As she admits, she reverted back to her old habits, really not having learned what the problem was.
The years passed by and just over 2 years ago, around the time she retired, Paula took stock of her life. She had a lot of weight on. She thought to herself that she didn’t want to be too heavy to be lifted, didn’t want to be a burden on people. She wanted to be able to run after her grandchildren and maintain a normal healthy life.
Paula contacted Motivation again but it took her 6 months to get in motion. She picked her daughter’s birthday, the 9th June as her start date.
One month into her new Motivation programme she was a stone down but then discovered she had a serious medical condition. Diagnosed as suffering from heart arrhythmia, Paula was told that it can be easily controlled by medication but also, that for every 10% reduction in body weight, she would reduce the risk of the actual fibrillation recurring by 10%
As Paula says, “it was a kind of no-brainer. I had started with the pleasure principle of losing weight, now I had the pain principle as well,”
As a life-long foodie, Paula decided to pursue her own range of healthy recipes. With advice from some good friends, Nevin Maguire and Francis Brennan, Paula secured a publishing contract with Gill who, in 2018, published ‘Doctor On a Diet’ by Dr. Paula Gilvarry.
Paula offers some advice on how to approach the Motivation Weight Management weight loss programme. Important not just to in thinking you’re on a diet. You have to listen and you have to learn.
Some of her friends who did just that are delighted – they figured out why this is happening (overeating) to me and how they can stop it happening again.
Paula’s podcast with Aisling Connolly covers a lot of other points and the podcast is well worth a listen.

No one demographic group in Ireland or indeed anywhere is immune to being overweight. Teenagers are no exception. In this teenager’s weight loss story, we hear from Jack, who, when he was 19 decided to do something about his knowing that he was uncomfortable with the excess weight he was carrying.
Jack’s story is not unique. There are many thousands of teenagers that face the daily ritual of looking for clothes that camouflage their excess weight. They endure the daily torment of feeling uncomfortable and dread social occasions. This unhappiness is multiplied by the pervasiveness of social media and the unwarranted attention it can draw to their plight – not wanting to be included in group photographs.
Jack’s story is worth listening to; his recounting of how it took him a few goes to pick up the phone and make his initial appointment with Motivation, to his journey of awareness as he shed the kilos and today, as a young man that is very happy within himself and proud of his achievement.
It’s important to focus on some of the aspects of the Motivation programme that Jack felt are critical to his success:
1. The one-to-one private weight loss consultations. Jack felt at ease in the privacy of the one-to-one sessions and as many teenagers and adults alike will understand, weight loss is a personal and private journey, so the intimacy of the private sessions is critical to their success.
2. Jack felt that being accountable every week made him more alert to what he should eat and his habits and behaviours around food. As the weight began to fall, he actually looked forward to his weekly weight management appointment to ‘celebrate’ another drop in weight.
3. Understanding that there is more to weight loss that weight itself. Jack gained an understanding of how other factors come into play – his body fat percentage, his BMI and how important it is to reduce your visceral fat percentage to as low as is possible.
With our assistance, Jack’s story can be any overweight teenager’s weight loss story. Motivation Weight Management provides the tools and support to help teenagers overcome their weight management challenges and more importantly, as Jack’s story demonstrates, we help teenagers (and adults) to keep the weight off.

Another Man’s Experience
This podcast, number 4 in our series on weight loss for men and in this episode, we talk to Gary Browne, a client from our Swords clinic.
Gary decided to come to Motivation for two reasons:
1. For his own health
2. The health of one of his daughters.
Gary and his wife were researching the options and ways of helping her and they came across Motivation. Gary had previous experience of a weight loss programme a decade previously. He said he would go along to support his daughter.
Both started with Motivation in Swords back in January 2018.
As Gary indicated for his own health was a key driver in joining Motivation. He’d been diagnosed with high blood pressure and had been on blood pressure medication for about 2 1/2 years.
At the beginning of the programme Gary’s actual weight was 22 stone 1 lb and his Mental Weight was 20 stone.
Today, 7th May 2019, Gary’s actual weight is 15dt 5lbs and his Mental Weight is 13st 8lbs. Gar’s much improved Mental Weight score indicates that he is behaving and acting like a much healthier person.
Gary is now playing indoor football once or twice a week, he’s also in the gym keeping fit. Gary remarked that for the podcast, he ran up the 3 flights of stairs to the Motivation clinic in the Beacon. It didn’t even occur to him to take the lift.
Looking back, just over 2 years ago it was commonplace for Gary to fall asleep in front of the TV. Yes, he stills nods off but it’s now the exception rather than the rule.
Gary says that weight loss is a self-fulling prophecy. The weight loss has allowed him to be more active which in turn has him losing more weight.
Gary’s goal was to come off his blood pressure medication – which he has done! He wrote don the other goals such to be able to go back and play football and other simple things we take for granted.
Gary had long wanted to shop in Tommy Hilfiger but instead he shopped in outlet malls when he visited the USA. He actually enjoyed shopping in the outlet malls because he wasn’t even buying the biggest sizes available.
Now he’s shopping in Tommy Hilfiger and GANT.
Gary didn’t figure on the impact his weight loss would have on his appearance. A guy he hand’t seen since before he joined Motivation was looking at him across a football pitch. He came over eventually and said at first he didn’t recognise but but realised it was Gary he was looking at.
This podcast was recorded in the Motivation Weight Management Head Office in the Beacon Medical Mall.
Click below to listen to the podcast Men’s Weight Loss and Health With Gary Browne

One of the main reasons that many men attend our clinics is because their doctor has told them to lose weight or they themselves have recognised that they have some sort of weight related health issue.
When we broach the subject of emotional eating – it generally becomes apparent though the mental weight report – it comes as a shock, they don’t want to think about it until they come to understand it.
To put this in context for men: there has been a sea change in how men view their emotions and how amenable they now are to both recognise there is an issue(s) and more importantly, that it’s perfectly ok to open up and talk about it.
This willingness to be open leads to awareness which in turn enables the root causes of the emotional eating to be identified and addressed. Niall Breslin aka Bressie, is an example – when he said to the doctor if had admitted it in that time (2006), how would be have been judged. Today, we have any number of personalities, organisations and events that champion, arrange and mark the importance of men’s mental health.
Traditionally men are told, from early childhood, not to show emotion and to hold it in. As a result, in teenage and early adult years, the response for some men it to use food to cover up when they feel emotional – it could be stress related, relationship turmoil or any number of situations that trigger that emotional reaction.
Stress is now recognised as a significant factor in triggering emotional eating.
For men the ability to actually tell people how they are feeling is lacking – it’s not something that was there during childhood so it’s now an issue. When this challenge / issue is explained to men and when they have that eureka moment, a massive transformation usually takes place.
They now know the ‘why’, the triggers for their emotional eating and most importantly, they understand the changes they need to make.
The ensuing benefits trickle down quite fast to everyone as we find that men (and women) that lose weight on our programme lead happier and more fulfilling lives.
Click below to listen to Men & Emotional Eating

One of the big questions when men come to see us is their concern in not wanting to lose muscle tissue.
Generally, when men come to see us they have tried everything else. They tend to try the gym and they will do a lot of working out. They put all their effort into it but because the gym, for many men is unsustainable ( there is a tendency to get fatigued) they tend to revert to the way things were before – the weight is regained and the muscle definition that was gained is lost.
Therefore, when men present themselves at our clinics for their first visit, we find that they’ve experienced weight loss / weight gain and muscle gain / muscle loss so they are more than concerned that this cycle doesn’t happen again.
To avoid this we monitor our clients (male and female) to make sure they are not losing muscle. We do a breakdown of the body mass – we look at fat, muscle and water and by doing this every 4 weeks we ensure they are losing the weight healthily rather than just losing weight.
You will notice people that lose weight unhealthily – they lose muscle mass and it gives rise to a gaunt look. They don’t understand the importance of taking protein to maintaining muscle mass.
Male clients have reported to sue how they tried diets in the past that didn’t have enough protein to protect muscle tissue and ended up having that gaunt look. One particular client remarked how people were asking him was he ill because he looked so gaunt.
Muscle loss is not good – it’s called sarcopenia – find out more about it here in our blog What Is Sarcopenia and How To Avoid It.
Did you know that men have more muscle mass than women so their protein allowance is completely different to females.
A lot of the male clients we see have been told they have to lose weight by a doctor. This is often the catalyst for change.
One client Robbie treated was referred by his doctor and had heart issues, high blood pressure and Type 2. After losing weight with Motivation, he was able to stop taking the medication for his heart and  blood pressure and no longer presented with Type 2. This was life changing.
The podcast also delves into Ketosis. On a ketogenic diet, the body does not get the glucose and sugars or the carbohydrates you get on many diet plans. The next source of energy is muscle tissue but on our healthy eating plans, the protein protects the muscle, hence the importance of taking protein in all our healthy eating plans.
It’s important to assure male listeners – you are not going to lose muscle tissue on our programme. If anything, you are going to look fitter and healthier.
Click below to listen to the podcast Men, Weight Loss And The Importance Of Taking Protein.

‘Getting To Grips With Men’s Health‘ is the first of three podcasts on the subject of men, their health (both mental and physical) and other weight related issues.
Joining Aisling Connolly is Robbie O’Neill. Robbie has a long and extensive career in weight loss and weight management with Motivation. After consulting and managing clinics, Robbie now heads up the training department here at Motivation and he brings a wealth of experience to the podcast table.
In this podcast Aisling and Robbie look at how men approach weight loss in general and the changes men can make to their lifestyles, changes that will have a marked impact on their lives.
Male clients tend to come in when they have a significant amount of weight to lose rather than with female clients as we tend to see them earlier in the weight loss cycle.
Men are generally goal orientated and at the beginning they will focus a lot on the scales – checking on how much weight they lost that week. We focus instead on the benefits accruing from losing the weight.
A great example from Robbie is the keen golfer who reports back that he is now hitting the ball further than he has in a long time (after losing weight).**
This is one example of the small things they (men) want to get back. Rather than the big things – that number on the scale – it’s the small things that count; I’m able to walk on a Sunday with my family. I used to sit in the car and wait for them to come back. I didn’t want them to see how much I was struggling.
On Exercise
One of the questions often asked is what is the best exercise to lose weight and our reply is always, something that you enjoy.
Do men feel under pressure to look a certain way?
You look at TV, the sportsman you hold in high esteem and you want to be like them. You don’t vocalise it but you work towards that. For some men, they want to look a certain way so they put there all into it, that is, until you can’t do anymore.
This is what we call perfectionism and what is interesting is that when you play it back to the client that they display strong perfectionism traits, it’s definitely not something that they are aware of.
Then you explain that it’s all or nothing.
I’m either doing it or I’m not.
I’m going to be that way or I’m not going to be that way.
Perfectionism has a huge impact on their weight loss and life in general. The key is to change a little bit and be that best that we can be.
How important talking is for our health.
In social situations it seems more acceptable for men not to talk.  Men tend to sit back and let things happen and not talk about it so much. In the aforementioned social situations, men don’t tend to look around and think aloud ‘I’d like to be like him’ whereas for women there is that feeling of being judged in social situations that they need to look a certain way.
As a consequence, for men, it appears to be a little easier so they allow (weight gain) to go a little further.
Click the play button below to listen to Getting To Grips With Men’s Health.
**Why not check out our Assist Pillar pdf – The Golf Report: Swing Into Health And Lower Your Golf Handicap. Click here to get your FREE copy.

Episode #19 in the Motivation Assist Podcast series is How To Support Your Partner On Their Weight Loss Journey.
One of the main challenges on a weight loss programme is the feeling that their partner is thinking, ‘here we go again,’ or ‘more money down the drain.’ The reality with the Motivation programme is that when they start to lose the weight and keep it off, their partner, of course notices and for some, that’s when they tell them that they are doing the programme.
The overriding concern comes from previous failures – I’ve failed in the past so I don’t want anyone to know.
As we always say here in Motivation, those diet programmes failed you, you didn’t fail them.
We provide the tools to help couples understand what is involved and how to have constant dialogue so as to communicate their feelings and thoughts throughout the programme.
A big challenge for many is that their partner has no real understanding of what is involved and how important their weight loss programme is to them.
Partners are known to urge their partner to cheat. A common throwaway is to ‘live a little,’ and a great reply from one of Maebh’s clients was, “I am living. I’m actually living much better than I was before.”
It’s not dissimilar to one half of a couple giving up drinking (for a month or for an extended period) and the other partner wanting them to have a drink.
If something is said that is hurtful to someone trying to lose weight the partner needs to realise that they are actually almost pushing them towards food by doing that. This is the art of sabotage and it may happen consciously or subconsciously
Another important point for a partner of close relative of the person trying to lose weight, is not to ask about the amount of weight lost. This is a negative kind of pressure because there may be an occasion where there was no measurable weight loss – you may well have lost fat but retained excess water.
Overall, relationships blossom as a result of weight that is lost and wight loss that is is maintained. The extended family benefits are enormous – the know on effects are all positive.
Having an understanding of how to support your partner on their weight loss journey is an important ingredient to successful weight loss.
 

This is a remarkable success story of Lucy Flanagan, a woman that in the process of reaching her target weight, totally transformed her life, so much so, that she has never felt happier or more fulfilled.
Step back 6 years and Lucy Flanagan was struck down with a virus that left a major impact on her life; it damaged her heart which meant that she could no longer work or do any exercise.
How Lucy describes her weight loss journey with Motivation, is as our clinics director Aisling Connolly says in her 25 years in the weight loss industry, the best explanation of how Motivation works.
Lucy was 13 1/2 stone when she started with Motivation in June 2018. Her mental weight was 16 stone 9lbs and her mental weight (the habits, behaviours and attitudes) was comparable with someone who was 16 stone 9lbs – a weight she would eventually end up at if she continued living the way she was.
One of Lucy’s biggest challenges was food reward, basically eating when she wasn’t hungry. She is now in a much happier place – she has deprogrammed and reprogrammed her attitude to food.
She now enjoys food and sees it in a totally different way and is no longer dependent / reliant / rewarded by it.
As Lucy says, she cannot exercise. She can’t even go for a walk.
What’s interesting is that prior to falling ill Lucy was very much an outdoors person and loved to exercise. She notes in the podcast that exercise in itself had no real effect on her eating – even when she was running 5k and 10k races she was still overweight.
For Lucy, it was the psychological part of the programme that helped he to finally lose weight and more importantly, as she stresses to keep that weight off.
She knew that she had to change the way she thought about food. She was a veteran of many previous diet programmes but in every single case she put the weight back on.
For the past six years Lucy felt she was living in a limbo but through Motivation she transformed not only her weight and how she looked but her entire mental attitude to life.
Lucy feels that she has got her life back.
As Lucy says, it’s a different life to the one she had, that’s fine but it’s a fulfilled and happy life.
Today Lucy weighs 10st 8lbs and her mental weight is nor 11 stone 1lb.
From previous experience, Lucy says that losing weight is the easy half of the battle. Maintaining the weight loss is the other half.
Lucy hit her target weight in min-November and has had no issues since. She had a great Christmas, went on holidays in January and has maintained her weight.
For Lucy, the continuing support is important and hugely beneficial.
Listen to Lucy’s weight loss story below.

Episode #18 in the Motivation Assist Podcast series is How To Lose Fat Without Losing Muscle.
Here at Motivation we always emphasise to clients that when you are losing weight you do not want to lose muscle.
Research and experience shows that when people go on a diet which reduces their calorie intake that generally they will also lose muscle tissue as well as fat. The upshot is that they will look gaunt and too thin, eliciting comments that they look unwell.
The fact is that when people go on an unregulated weight loss programme they can and do lose muscle tissue. The Motivation weight loss programme is designed to prevent muscle loss. We provide our clients with all the support they need so that their eating plans ensure they protect their muscle mass and they only thing they lose is fat.
It’s important to understand how important muscle loss is and how it affects every person, be they over weight or not. In medical circles muscle loss is known as sarcopenia (check our our detailed blog post on sarcopenia and how to avoid it.)
As we get older, and for some this can start in their late 20s and early 30s, we lose muscle mass year-on-year. The two key elements to prevent muscle loss is the food we eat and the exercise we do.
A woman in her 50s could stand on the scales and say she is the same weight she is when she got married but the reality is very different. In this example, the woman has lost up to 1 1/2 stone / 9.5 kgs in muscle loss and replaced that with fat, some of it hidden and we now know that this hidden fat is deadly (check out our blog post on visceral fat and how to get rid of it.)
Muscle is metabolically active, so if we lose muscle everything slows down and inevitably we put on weight.
Don’t be disheartened! If you are in your 40s, 50s, 60s or your 70s it is 100% possible to regain that muscle (quite quickly.)
To listen to How To Lose Fat Without Losing Muscle just click the play button below.
Also, you can book a no obligation assessment for just €25 here.

In this Motivation Assist Podcast Aisling Connolly and Meabh Coyle talk about how to get to grips with portion sizes and the steps you can take to help you avoid those situations where the quantity of food on offer is an issue.
The key to portion control is that once you readjust your portion sizes and follow the guides in the food plan booklet, you will realise that the portion sizes as prescribed are adequate – you ‘wont feel hungry or deprived.
The real eye opener for clients is the realisation, that for (many) years that their portion sizes have been way too big.
The problem is exacerbated by the sizes of modern portions. If you think of the traditional scone that you’d have bought or perhaps your mother made some 15 or years ago and look at it’s modern equivalent; its probably three or four times the size.
In addition, research shows that when someone is presented with a portion of food, a scone in this instance, they are quite likely to eat it all.
So, even though we know it’s a large serving to being with, we tend to finish it off.
The key here is that we are letting the food industry dictate the portion sizes and how much is enough.
Look at the bagel. A few years ago it was 3 inches in diameter and about 140 calories. Today, its’ about 6 inches and 220 calories. What changed? Why do we need an extra 70 calories when the original 3-inch bagel was sufficient.
We are programmed / conditioned to take for granted that we are getting better value with bigger portions.
A really good habit to get into is to save a portion of the huge portion for a snack or lunch the next day.
Part of the challenge for people can be a lack of assertiveness, such as not asking for a doggy bag in a restaurant. That is one of the areas that Motivation helps clients with: to be able to take control in situations where you should stop eating and ask for the remaining food to be wrapped to take away.
Check out the How To Get To Grips With Portion Sizes podcast below and get some handy tips on portion control.

Episode #16 in the Motivation Assist Podcast series is How To Manage Alcohol This Christmas
This podcast presents 5 reasons to drink less this Christmas and provides support on how to do it.
The party season is well and truly upon is and it means a lot of eating, celebrating and drinking.
What is important is that you take a moment to think about the role you want alcohol to play this Christmas (and New Year) and more importantly, how to manage alcohol this Christmas.
Here are the 5 reasons to drink less this Christmas:
1. Weight maintenance and control is going to be much easier.
Please watch out for every-day drinking as it will increase your appetite. The problem with alcohol is that it interferes with the way the body burns fat. When you take a drink the body stops using fat for energy and uses alcohol instead
2. Better health and better skin.
Alcohol is a diuretic meaning that it causes water loss and dehydration. Alcohol also robs your skin if important B vitamins, folic acid and zinc.
3.  Better connections with those around you.
It is false to say that conversations are more meaningful when you consume alcohol. One’s ability to recall ‘meaningful’ conversations is severely impaired when consuming alcohol.
4. Better sleep.
When you drink alcohol, you don’t go into REM or deep quality sleep. Not getting enough rest triggers cravings and likelihood of eating more calories the following day.
5. Your mental health is going to improve.
Fact, alcohol is a depressant and without it, mental health improves.
Many people who attempt to lose weight forget one major factor, drinks contain calories. When monitoring your calorie intake many people just think of food, but alcohol, as well as other drinks such as sodas, fruit juice etc. all contain calories, and a lot more than you would probably think. One glass of white wine can contain up to 100 calories and some cocktails can round up to a shocking 600 calories.

Episode #15 in the Motivation Assist Podcast series is How To Maintain Your Weight This Christmas
There is no doubt that Christmas can be a stressful time of the year and ‘guilt & perfectionism’ plays a significant role in contributing to the stress.
Do you know that feeling of relief when the Christmas dinner routine is complete? Do you ever take time to step back and examine the sequence of events leading up to the day and wonder, ‘how did I manage to get through this?’
For this Christmas, we advise you to lower your expectations of yourself. Don’t bottle up your emotions; we know from past experience that holding in emotions is a key trigger for comfort eating.
Check out our Christmas Activity Pack
Use the activity calendar as your focal point. There are six key areas for you to focus on:
– Motivational Tools
– Hydration
– Exercise
– Alcohol-Free Day
– Sugar-Free Day
– Sleep
Click here to download yours.
We don’t expect every day to be filled in……watch out for perfectionism….but it will help you to stay focussed.
Everybody reading this probably has the same goal in mind and that is to maintain your weight over the Christmas and New Year break.
The Christmas Activity Planner will help you to keep in mind the positive habits that can make a huge difference and two of those are:
1. Can you drink at least 6-8 glasses of water every day
2. Can you get 7-8 hours sleep every day.
If you are doing these two, you are flying along and the rest you can build on.

Episode #14 in the Motivation Assist Podcast series is Value For You Body.
This podcast deals with the uncertainty may people have when they come into Motivation for their initial assessment consultation.*
The underlying reason is that they’ve spent a considerable amount of time and money on a rage of different diet programmes over the years – all to no avail.
Because of this there is naturally a lot of skepticism and a feeling of ‘what will be different this time?’ What we can and what we do demonstrate is that, health benefits aside and there are many, that you’ll actually save money on the Motivation Weight Management programme.
This leads on to value for money. While the quick fixes and fad diets may look like value for money, they’re not. They don’t work and you end up back at square one feeling disappointed and cheated. Please note: you’ve not failed, the quick fixes and fad diets have failed you. There is a big difference!
The fact is that for most Motivation clients, once they are on-board and following their weight loss programme, cost is realy, if ever, mentioned again.
Why? The benefits of having more energy, sleeping better, feeling better, being lighter and maintaining the weight loss are exceptionally powerful. The payoff in terms of the better quality of life are massive.
Also, your body is going to perform better. This means you are less likely to get sick and if you do get sick, recovery times are much quicker.
One point worth noting – the more years you lead an unhealthy lifestyle, the greater the costs of bad health later on. So, by looking after yourself now, you are going to save yourself a considerable amount of pain, heachache and money.
What price would you pay to have:
– self confidence
– self esteem
– a healthy body
Think about value for your body.
 

The importance of water to weight loss cannot be underestimated. Only too often people on weight loss plans get disheartened with their weight loss efforts because they are basing their success on what the scales is telling them.
We’ve written on this topic before, the importance of hydration, and in this podcast we’ve one key objective – to help listeners understand that in many instances it’s your water levels that may be affecting your weight loss efforts. If you listen to the podcast you’ll hear that because the weighing scales is weighing all of you – muscle, fat and water, that if you’ve water retention then it may well mask the fact that you really did lose weight that week.
Water retention occurs for a wide range of reasons but chief among them is stress, heat, hormones and too much caffeine. In fact, in many instances, your body will retain fluid because you’ve not given it enough water. To make sense of that, when you give your body the recommended amount, which we say is around the 2 litre mark, then your body is adequately hydrated and it doesn’t need to retain fluid.
Why drink water?
Besides the obvious that we need water to live, it has been shown that when we are adequately hydrated, the energy burn or consumption of calories goes up by 30% within 10 minutes of drinking the water. This effect lasts for about an hour.
There is no exact figure on the calorie burn count but it’s estimated to be about 100 calories. So, for nothing more than drinking 8 glasses of water a day, you’ll burn up to 700 calories in a week.
Exercise, diet and water combined will all improve your weight loss efforts.
Click the link below to listen to the The Importance of Water To Weight Loss podcast.

Episode #12 in the Motivation Assist Podcast series is The Truth About The Weighing Scales.
The weighing scales is such a negative influence with anybody who is trying to lose weight. Basically, most people are letting the weighing scales judge their success.
We are all conditioned with the weighing scales as a measurement or as a tool of how well we’ve done over the past week.
But as we’ve always said here at Motivation, your week has been good week if you’ve changed your behaviour in any way and/or, if your food diary has been good.
The reality is – when you stand on the scales and you don’t get the result you want, it doesn’t suddenly become a bad week. It’s still a good week – quick prompt: the focus is on changed bahaviour and a good food diary.
The bottom line is that it’s more important that you change your habits and behaviours rather than focusing on the number on the scale.
Listen to this week’s podcast for more insights into The Truth About The Weighing Scales.

This podcast deals with bread and for many of you reading this, you will readily identify how bread has been a major issue when it comes to losing weight.
There is huge choice when it comes to bread and it’s not surprising that there is so much confusion as to:
–  which is the right bread to eat?
– which is the healthiest bread to eat?
– which is the highest in fats, sugars, etc?
It’s a minefield and we need to be especially vigilant in looking closer at the labels and the ingredients.
Maebh explores how bread, for her, was and is a trigger food (check out her blog on bread as a trigger food). She observes how people around her could have one or two slices but that she wouldn’t. She’d keep eating and afterwards, would feel incredibly bloated and wouldn’t feel well. And this experience around bread would repeat itself again and again.
Today, Maebh weight is much more manageable, in no small part to the fact that bread plans a much smaller role in her life.
Maebh explains the science that part explains our love affair with bread. Bread activates the brain’s appetite reard and appetite pathways – this is in marked contracts to protein based foods.
With bread, it feels good so you want more to get the same effect / hit. Insulin will spike and then your blood sugar levels crash.
Everyone is different and for some their trigger is sugar, for many other including Maebh, it’s bread.
A key piece of advice from Maebh is to say no to the bread basket. When you rationalise it – eating bread before a meal is just a (bad) habit. Why would you fill yourself up and not leave room for the main course.
Continue this discussion on bread by listening in to the podcast below,

This podcast provides some great tips and tricks to help you and your children to get through halloween in as healthy a way as possible.
When it comes to trick or treating we can only trick the kids so much. We need to think clearly and cleverly about the best ways or means to get their buy-in so that they don’t feel let down or excluded from the festivities. Key among this is first and foremost to focus on the things that the kids like – popcorn, little bottles of water, the simple stick on tattoos, etc, and for the older kids, sugar-free gum is a great alternative.
By the way, no one says working with your kids to reduce the volume of sugar at halloween is easy. We are being heavily promoted to with bigger, special-value packs so both parents and kids alike have expectations that bigger is better.
The simple answer if sweets are on the list is to go for the best quality. You’ll buy less but as a consequence, you’ll also give out less. Funnily enough, the parents in turn will be grateful that you’ve only given their kids a few (high-quality) sweets.
This approach takes the emphasis off quantity.
Another approach worth considering is not to let any sweets make it to the bedroom. It’s like screens, you can’t monitor what you can’t see.
This next section tells you something about your age but consider taking some of the emphasis away from sweets and putting it on some ‘old fashioned’ games:
– Pumpkin Carving
– Spooky Stories
– Pass the Apple
– Bobbing for Apples
– Pin the Donkey
– Bairín Breac
Another alternative is to get the kids to separate their favourites and non-favourites into piles and only let them keep the favourites.
Also, if we can help the children to accept non-oral rewards / treats at Halloween this will turn out to be an important lesson that will stand to them into adulthood.
Tune into this week’s podcast below to find our more….

The Invisible killer or visceral fat is scary because it isn’t visible. There are so many people walking around that don’t know they have dangerously high levels of visceral fat.
Before we proceed, let’s differentiate between the two types of fat present in our bodies.
Subcutaneous fat is that fat that just sits under your skin. It’s easy to feel it, just gently pinch your waist. That’s subcutaneous fat.
The other (visceral) fat sits behind the abdominal wall in the abdominal cavity. Visceral fat will accumulate around the organs – your lungs, heart, pancreas, liver and intestines. The more visceral fat you have, the less space your vital organs have to perform their essential tasks.
Invisible Killer Visceral Fat
This poses serious threats to one’s health:

* Raises blood pressure which leads to heart attacks.
* Secretes a hormone that causes inflammation in the body which leads to arthritis and cancer.
* Interferes with the liver and leads to insulin resistance which is the beginning to Type II diabetes.
* Linked to Alzheimer’s and dementia

What are the main causes of visceral fat accumulation:

* Age. The older we get, the more susceptible we are to accumulating visceral fat.
* Poor diet. Being too reliant on processed foods is a major contributor to visceral fat.
* Alcohol. Excess alcohol consumption – think beer belly.
* Exercise. Excess intake of calories without exercise or a means to burn it off will inevitable leady to accumulation of visceral fat.
* Stress. Not well known is that stress triggers a hormone that aids the build-up of visceral fat.
* Not enough sleep.
* Post menopausal women.

First observation you can make is that if you have a large midsection, then the chances are you are probably carrying excess visceral fat.
Another, easy to-do-test, is to check your BMI or Body Mass Index. Click here to use our BMI calculator.
If you require further assistance, please book an initial assessment at your nearest Motivation clinic where we will:

* Complete a full Body Composition Analysis, where we measure your fat, water and muscle percentages, your visceral fat percentage and your metabolic age.
* Assess your measurements, calculate your Body Mass Index (BMI), check your heart rate and blood pressure.
* Examine your current daily eating habits and lifestyle and discuss where you need to make changes.
* This consultation will help to identify what type of plan best suits your needs based on your own personal and unique requirements.

Programming Sequence Learn To Reward Yourself

Day 21 Learn To Reward Yourself

Day 20 Learn To Reward Yourself

Day 19 Learn To Reward Yourself

Day 18 Learn To Reward Yourself

Day 17 Learn To Reward Yourself

Day 16 Learn To Reward Yourself

Day 15 Learn To Reward Yourself

Day 14 Learn To Reward Yourself

Day 13 Learn To Reward Yourself

Day 11 Learn To Reward Yourself

Day 11 Learn To Reward Yourself

Day 10 Learn To Reward Yourself

Day Nine Learn To Reward Yourself

Day 7 Learn To Reward Yourself

Day 6 Learn To Reward Yourself

Day Five Learn To Reward Yourself

Day 4 Learn To Reward Yourself

Day 3 Learn To Reward Yourself

Day 2 Learn To Reward Yourself

Day 1 Learn To Reward Yourself

Day Eight Learn To Reward Yourself

In this week’s podcast Aisling and Meabh go back in time to Meabh’s early adult years when she struggled with her weight. Maebh talks openly about her journey from when when she was overweight and to where she is today – how to think like a slim person.
In her early adult years, Meabh pretty much ate what she liked, when she liked and never paid much heed to portions. On occasions she’d finish the food that was left on her boyfriend’s plate.
At the root of much of this was a complete lack of awareness or understanding of what she was doing. Not a clue about the importance of blood sugar levels and how to avoid the dreaded dips.
When Meabh decided to join up to do a Motivation programme, the great awakening or education began. She learned all about blood sugar levels and how to avoid the extreme lows – she was now in a much better position to make healthy food choices.
In addition to the lack of awareness Meabh also refers to her feelings of guilt. How she’d overeat and endure feelings of guilt as a result.  Meabh pointed out that her 20s and 30s were very happy years but the feelings of guilt around food were pretty constant. This is probably something that will resonate with most people; we can lead pretty happy and enjoyable lives but there is always that nigging guilt when it comes to.
Today, Maebh is in a position of control. The Mental Weight questionnaire that all Motivation clients complete, showed her key issues as being one of guilt and perfectionism. Actually, her Mental Weight was comparable with the habits and behaviours of someone 2 stone heavier. In other words, if Maebh were to continue her current habits and behaviours she would end up 2 stone heavier.
Using the tools and techniques provided by her weight loss consultant, Maebh was able to overcome the personal issues that were causing her to overeat in the first place, put in place the framework to build a better place – one that enabled her to think like a slim person. Not only that, Maebh went on to join Motivation and trained to become a weight loss consultant.

Day 6 Nutrition Sugars

Guilt & Perfectionism Programming Sequence

Day 21 Guilt & Perfectionism

Day 20 Guilt & Perfectionism

Day 19 Guilt & Perfectionism

Day 18 Guilt & Perfectionism

Day 17 Guilt & Perfectionism

Day 16 Guilt & Perfectionism

Day 15 Guilt & Perfectionism

Day 14 Guilt & Perfectionism

Day 13 Guilt & Perfectionism

Day 12 Guilt & Perfectionism

Day 11 Guilt & Perfectionism

Day 10 Guilt & Perfectionism

Day 9 Guilt & Perfectionism

Day 8 Guilt & Perfectionism

Day 7 Guilt & Perfectionism

Day 6 Guilt & Perfectionism

Day 5 Guilt & Perfectionism

Day 4 Guilt & Perfectionism

Day 3 Guilt & Perfectionism

Day 2 Guilt & Perfectionism

Day 1 Guilt & Perfectionism

Programming Sequence

Day 21 The Parent Child Relationship

Day 20 The Couple Relationship

Day 19 Nutrition Fruit and Vegetables

Day 18 Social Success

Day 17 Nutrition, Fats and TDEE

Day 16 Motivational Blocks

Day 15 Relationships Wtih Parents

Day 14 Physical Activity

Day 13 Sadness, Boredom, Solitude and Depression

Day 12 Uncontrollable Cravings

Day 11 – Anxiety

Day 10 – Guilt

Day 9 – Physical Activity

Day 8 – Anger