Motive Studio’s Post

Why can't you resist a slice of chocolate cake? Or the pizza after a longer day? It's not about hunger. It’s psychological. What can you do to address these cravings? 1. Recognise your triggers Work stress? Boredom? Partner! Identify them. 2. Find healthy alternatives Craving sweets opt for fruit. Find alternatives that are more empowering than the quick dopamine hit we get from food that quite literally kills us. 3. Practice mindful eating Focus on your food, enjoy each bite, and recognise when you're full. 4. Don't be too hard on yourself. Moderation not deprivation. If it happens, move on and hit the reset button. This is a sure fire way to control these cravings. Have you found a technique that works for you? Share it in the comments below. 👇

"But what can I have when everyone else is having treats? There has to be some option you can recommend as a healthy snack?" I got asked this the other day with a fair amount of desperation. The soft answer is, that maybe there are some "healthy" snack options out there. But my real answer is, why do you have to have a treat just because everyone else in the boardroom is knocking back sweets? The whole mindset is a sugar wrapped limiting belief. Mindless snacking through the workday is not a biological need. It's a cultural norm that's developed on the back of diet culture and poor work/self-care balance. Feeling peakish mid afternoon is not a lack of chocolate - it's a lack of eating enough real food to fuel your day earlier on. Low energy midmorning is not a lack of chocolate - it's a lack of sleep, movement, hydration, and real food to sustain your energy. Having to have a treat because everyone else is doing it is not about our rights to have treats - it's about values, and a lack of connection to what's really important to us so we can make decisions that aren't swayed by the actions of others. Humans aren't cows. We don't need to graze all day. In fact, constant snack messes with blood sugar balance, digestive function, hunger and satiety signals, and energy. The need to snack is a symptom of a deeper issue. The first step is awareness - what's driving the snack craving for you. Is it meal skipping, stress, lack of sleep, lack of joy, and engagement in what you're doing? Then address that.

Nighttime eating can disrupt sleep and lead to unwanted weight gain. Here are some tips to manage it: - Set a Kitchen Curfew: Establish a time after which you won’t eat, ideally 2-3 hours before bed. - Stay Hydrated: Sometimes thirst is mistaken for hunger. Drink water throughout the evening. - Healthy Evening Snacks: If you must snack, choose light options like a small handful of nuts or a piece of fruit. - Mindful Eating: Pay attention to why you're eating. Are you truly hungry or just bored or stressed? - Evening Routine: Develop a relaxing bedtime routine to wind down without food, such as reading or taking a warm bath.

Top5 » 5 Alternatives to Your Morning Coffee Discover five refreshing alternatives to your morning coffee that not only curb your caffeine cravings but also boost your energy levels naturally. From the robust flavors of mushroom coffee to the cleansing powers of green juice, explore drinks that offer health benefits and a delightful change to your daily routine.

🌍✈️🍽️ Ever been so jet lagged you've eaten breakfast for dinner? Or polished off a steak at 5am? Welcome to the world of the international business meetings. Sleep patterns? What are those? 🤷♂️ Time zones are just a suggestion, right? Your body, however, seems to disagree. It's screaming for a bit of tender, loving care. And maybe the odd salad. Let's be real. Your body is an engine. A high-performance car. It’s not meant to run on a diet of airport fast food and hotel room service. So, here's the plan: 1. Pack snacks. Almonds, protein bars, dried fruit. They're your new best friends. They won't spoil and they're easy go-to's. 2. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. It's easy to forget to top up on water, but if you're flying here, there and everywhere the air-con will suck the life out of you. 🚰 3. Try to eat at regular intervals. It's tempting not to eat at all when on different time zones, but this often leads to raiding the mini-bar later on. 4. When in Rome, don't do as the Romans do. Stick to your dietary guns. No matter how tempting the local cuisine. Eat fish, lean meat and green veggies for the win. Probably better to skip the dessert too. Eh? 5. Exercise. A quick 20-minute workout can do wonders. Even if it's in your hotel room with a circuit of squats and press-ups. Trust me on this. Remember, your body is your most valuable asset. Treat it like one. The key thing in all of this is YOU. Are you willing to make better decisions while on the road? 🌍🥦🏋️♀️ --- The name's Gavin. I help busy professionals over 40 get in the best shape of their life in 12-weeks. If you need a little kick up the backside, then let's have a chat 👇 http://mybodyfixers.com

Drinking coffee in the morning before breakfast can have both positive and negative effects on health, depending on individual circumstances. Positive effects: 1. Cognitive boost: Caffeine in coffee can enhance alertness, focus, and mental performance. 2. Metabolism kickstart: Caffeine can increase metabolism and aid in weight loss. 3. Antioxidants: Coffee contains antioxidants, which can help protect against cell damage and oxidative stress. Negative effects: 1. Disrupted digestion: Coffee can stimulate stomach acid production, potentially leading to heartburn, acid reflux, and digestive issues. 2. Blood sugar spikes: Caffeine can cause a rapid increase in blood sugar levels, potentially leading to energy crashes and mood swings. 3. Dehydration: Caffeine is a diuretic, which can lead to dehydration if not balanced with sufficient water intake. 4. Interference with medication: Caffeine can interact with certain medications, such as antidepressants, and reduce their effectiveness. 5. Sleep disturbance: Consuming coffee in the morning can lead to difficulty falling asleep and poor sleep quality. To make morning coffee consumption healthier: 1. Eat a light snack or breakfast with your coffee to balance blood sugar and digestion. 2. Choose Arabica coffee, which contains more antioxidants and less caffeine than Robusta coffee. 3. Be mindful of coffee quantity and caffeine intake (200-300mg, about 1-2 cups). 4. Stay hydrated by drinking water throughout the day. 5. Avoid adding large amounts of sugar, cream, or syrup to your coffee. Ultimately, whether drinking coffee before breakfast is good for health depends on individual tolerance, sensitivity, and overall lifestyle. If you experience negative effects, consider adjusting your coffee habits or consulting a healthcare professional.

You can learn a lot about a person by looking at their habits, as these have such a tremendous impact on how we lead our lives. After all, habits are those actions which we don't even have to consciously think about; such as opening a door cleaning our teeth, driving home after work. If you feel discontented look at your habits and ask whether they are serving you? Do they empower you? Do they help you achieve your goals? Are they consistent with the life you want to lead? Habits can be helping or hindering you and its important to get clarity on which habits you should keep and which ones you need to change. For instance if you want to be healthy and well having a nightly habit of eating deep fried Mars bars may not be so useful whereas a habit of daily healthy eating would be a more helpful habit; conducive with your goals. Although it's obvious that habits need to honour our values, they can easily become misaligned. If there is someone who you admire then take a look at - and replicate - their habits. Often small changes in your habits can bring about a massive positive change. ✨️

I used to be an addict. 😎 A coffee addict! ☕ It started when I was first working in advertising, and spent late hours working till 1am everyday, and not sleeping very much. 1 cup of coffee wasn’t enough. I slowly progressed to 3 cups a day. ☕ ☕ ☕ Over time, I did try to cut back, but realised I literally couldn’t survive without my mandatory 2 cups of coffee a day. 1 cup first thing in the morning, and another after lunch. Without coffee, I would experience withdrawal symptoms i.e. headache. And once the headache started, no amount of coffee or panadol would help, hence I had to make sure I had my ‘fix’ before the symptoms started. After I experienced burnout, I did an overhaul of my life, and was educated about the linkage between caffeine and stress / anxiety. So, although caffeine can increase alertness and productivity, and does have some health benefits when taken moderately, it can also exacerbate feelings of stress and anxiety in some individuals. So at first, I experimented with techniques recommended by others, such as substituting coffee with green tea or trying decaf coffee. However, these approaches didn't work for me; they didn’t help me stay alert or prevent my headaches from starting. 😣 After studying about health and nutrition, I worked on improving my health by optimising my nutrition and practising good sleeping habits. I then slowly reduced my caffeine intake and over time, I  realised that I didn’t need it anymore. Just the other day, I had a cup of coffee and realised I had not drank any for the last 2 weeks! 😊 Still, it is nice to enjoy that cup of coffee every now and then. Any coffee addicts / ex-addicts out there? How many cups do you drink a day? #coffee #musthave #stress #anxiety #coaching #workinglife

Eating behaviour change depends upon your client’s capacity to pay attention! A client came to see me because she was gaining weight. She was gaining weight because she was overeating at night, secondary to not eating enough during the day. She had learnt to restrict her intake to meet the demands of her sport. She also presented with food intolerance and an extreme fear of being hungry. Her extreme fear was related to a fainting incident that occurred because she was not aware that she was hungry. Her blood sugar dropped, and so did she.  Collectively, quite a tricky mix. However, an Attentive Weight Management Approach, which asks the client to pay attention with an attitude of curiosity and non-judgement to what is happening in the body, has the capacity to circumvent this. This client was asked to initially pay attention to her feelings of hunger, using a relatively innocuous hunger level scale. When this client started to pay attention to her feelings of hunger, she learnt to bring in a sense of curiosity towards these feelings and pay more attention to them. As a result, she learnt that she was hungry during the day. Secondary to this, she learnt to eat sooner rather than later, and in doing so, recognised that if she did so, then she would not end up being so hungry that she was at risk of fainting. As a result of paying attention to feelings that she feared – this client learnt to let go of them. Quite paradoxically – by learning to approach what she feared, using food and her body as her medium, she lost her fear. The Attentive Weight Management Approach has been generated from a temperament-informed perspective. When one takes this approach, everything gets normalised back to the realm of habit, reactivity and the client’s capacity to pay attention. Compassion is present: the only problem that anyone faces is that they are human. When one takes such an approach, your clients learn they can trust you and become willing to try the simplest of experiential exercises that have the capacity to provide the profoundest impact. This is just one part of this client’s story, an even more incredible outcome has occurred, and I will very much look forward to sharing this with you on Monday.

Here is why. Labelling drinking as “good” or “bad” tends to foster an all-or-nothing mentality. When we perceive a drinking occasion as “bad,” a single slip-up can trigger feelings of failure. This mindset discourages resilience and makes it challenging to bounce back from setbacks, hindering long-term success from reflecting on what happened constructively. Likewise, when we perceive our non-drinking phase as “good”, we can feel under pressure to perform, be “perfect” and keep up the hard work, attracting feelings of deprivation. What can also happen is that when your goal is achieved (ie 2 “good days” in a row, 100 days or FebFast), you can feel a sudden urge to relax, cave in and reward yourself with a few. Rather than viewing your alcohol-free goals as something that has a start date and end date or an event that is to be “won” or “lost”, view it as something that can either lead you to feel more energetic and healthier or fatigued and unwell. Rigidity and Unrealistic Standards is exhausting! It’s exhausting to be perfect all the time! Anxiety and stress becomes proportionate to whether you are meeting your self-imposed standards and may overshadow the positive aspects of adopting healthier habits. Also, attaching moral judgements to our drinking choices can be counterproductive. The fact is you are a good person now. You are a good person if you drink. You are a good person if you do not. Attaching your self-worth to an external substance gives alcohol way too much power in determining your happiness and stress levels. We are much more than a person who drinks or doesn’t drink. Does this resonate with you? If so, jump onto my blog on my website to see some suggestions on how to break free from this "good" or "bad" paradigm around your drinking goals 😊