Good Evening!

I hope you had a great weekend and are looking forward to a busy and productive week.

I received some E-Mails during the day yesterday from people asking me where the newsletter was as it didn't go out at it's usual time of early Saturday morning.

The reason was very deliberate and was to prove a few things really.

The first reason, which is this week's article, is around how easy it is to actually change something. The fact that all I did was schedule this newsletter for some 36 hours later than usual meant that the outcome was different.

The second reason was to show you how your emotional state can change over time. For a lot of people they will be happy on a Saturday morning when they usually get this as they have the whole weekend to look forward to, but then for the same people they may be less happy on a Sunday evening as they face the week ahead. It also, for a lot of people, the eve of starting yet another diet on a Monday morning.

Therefore, planning to be strong this week on your diet is all very well and good but the reality is you won't feel the same on Wednesday as you do tonight, hence trying to be strong before you start a diet is ultimately flawed. If you plan to be strong and hang in there on a diet then you tend to do that when you aren't feeling stressed, lonely, tired or bored, and so when you do feel those emotions, your willpower can be tested. So my main advice when starting a diet is to do it with a smile on your face and laugh your way to slimdom. I always say it and always will that I have never met a long term maintainer who didn't see doing a diet as a hugely positive experience in their life.

The third reason for sending it tonight was to show you that it is easy to break a habit, all a habit is is a repeated behaviour, but it does allow people to justify why they do what they do. When I was big I used to say that when I opened the fridge it was just a habit to eat something out of it, but the reality is that everytime I opened the fridge I was choosing to eat something. So I broke a habit this week by sending this on a different day. Why not "break" a habit of yours by just choosing not to do it anymore.

The final reason I sent the newsletter out tonight was to simply encourage you to think differently. Ultimately that is why I type this newsletter each week, when you realise you don't have to do the same thing everytime and get the same result then you can just do something different. I spent 20 years continuously dieting and not getting any slimmer and eventually I realised that just doing a diet doesn't work, you need to actually think differently and then the result can be so much more positive and long lasting.

Before I leave this week I want to ask you one question,

"What is the one thing you can do this week that will have the most positive effect on your life?

That may be diet related or it might not be. It might be to do that job you have been putting off or dealing with something that needs dealing with, whatever it is, just imagine how good you will feel once you've done it!

And just to show you how easy it is to change, if you are planning on starting a diet and getting slim then why not start it on Sunday Night instead of Monday morning, the result could be so much better.

I hope as always you have an amazing week and cya Saturday (promise!)

Mike :-)