New Year’s Resolutions: 10 Simple Steps to Stick to Them

Now that it’s a new year, are you wondering how how to stick to your new year’s resolutions? I’m here to help you.
In particular, I’d like to serve you if you’re seeking to shed excess weight, to create smart habits and set aside such health-harming habits as over-consuming sugar, coffee or diet soda, as well as procrastinating, smoking, being habitually late, obsessively checking emails or nail biting.
First off, know that you CAN Break Free of Your Bad Habits (what I call “Babits™”) for good.
Wondering why you would want to do that? Well, take the case of sugar. Indeed, as I recounted in my book SUGAR SHOCK!, just after quitting sugar and refined carbs on doctor’s orders in 1998, ALL 44 of my ailments, from crushing fatigue to brain fog, completely disappeared! I was amazed!
You, too, can learn that licking sweets (pun intended) and other health-robbing substances, as well as unproductive habits, can help you to:
* Shed excess weight,
* Get consistent energy,
* Boost your moods,
* Calm you down,
* Become more spiritual and centered,
* Increase your passion and productivity,
* Reduce your risk of getting type 2 diabetes, heart disease, cancer or hypoglycemia,
* Manage these conditions, if you have them,
* Rev up your libido,
* Reduce your PMS symptoms,
* And so much more!
In short, removing sugar and other negative patterns can help you get a Life That Rocks!™, you leave room for positive activities to fill their place. Here are 10 smart steps, which can help you break free of your babits™ (bad habits) and allow you to replace them with smart habits.
1. Congratulate Yourself. To begin your journey to health and wellness, I invite you to pat yourself on the back. You may wonder why you would want to do that, especially if you’ve spent years abusing your body. You want to applaud yourself, because the mere fact that you’re beginning to look at your sugar addiction or other bad habit is big! The first step to break away from sweets, refined carbs and other babits™ is to NOT beat up on yourself. Granted, you may have gobbled or guzzled high-calorie nutrient-poor sugary foods and drinks over the years, but now is a time to be gentle with yourself, to treat yourself with compassion and to take pride that you’re taking the much-needed first step to treat your body with love and care. Go ahead: Lavish some praise and kudos on yourself now that you’re finally confronting the bad habit that’s been plaguing you—perhaps for years. Share your excitement in your journal or in a heart-to-heart conversation with a loved one. Then imagine that you’re at the starting line of a race like a runner athlete and that you’re ready to make a massive positive shift. Please also remember to acknowledge and celebrate your every little accomplishment. For example, when you make it through a meal without sugary foods, diet soda or caffeine—or if you at least consume less of them—take pride and applaud yourself. After all, each time you make healthier choices, you get closer to more energy, a trimmer body and a better life.
2. Move With Your Mind & Mantra. Before you begin to try to kick your sugar addiction or another babit™, it’s time to embark on Seven Smart Starter Habits (through Step #8) to cement your confidence that good health, inner calm and new patterns await you. That’s because whenever you seek to remove an old habit and replace it with a new one, your work begins before you even try to make changes. In other words, before you begin to “diet” or make important lifestyle changes, you want to convince your mind that you CAN succeed. Begin each day knowing in the depth of your being that you’ve already licked your unhealthy habit. To get both your subconscious and conscious mind to accept that you’ve succeeded—or are on the path to succeeding—create an easy-to-repeat phrase, affirmation or mantra such as “I, [Your Name], choose only nourishing foods and drinks, which keep me slim, toned and healthy.” Repeat your positive statement at least 30 times a day. Make sure to say it in the morning, right after you wake up, and in the evening, before you go to sleep. Repeating it about 10 to 20 times before meals also can help. Back in 1998, when I finally kicked sugar, repeating my mantra enabled me to succeed. Now, my clients find this technique effective, too.

SUGAR SHOCK! Defined

Since gingerbread cookies, eggnog, candy canes and chocolate geld (coins) abound at this time of year and you’ll undoubtedly often be offered those and other tempting sweets this month, I invite you to start a process of self-discovery.
That’s right, in my opinion, December is not the month to kick your sugar habit (unless you insist!)
Instead, I encourage you to learn what shock is and then do what I call “sugary soul searching” so you can learn if this applies to you.
We’re revisiting the definition of SUGAR SHOCK! — which I gave here on this blog, in October 2006 — because my new Facebook friend Terri nudged me by asking, “What do you mean by Sugar Shock Connie?? I love how it sounds!!”
So here’s my definition of sugar shock, which is also included in my book of the same name. (You can get a sneak peek of my book SUGAR SHOCK! here.)
Please bear in mind that sugar shock is a condition that affects millions of people worldwide, including some one-quarter to one-half of the U.S. population.
SUGAR SHOCK!™ defined – A mood-damaging, personality-bending, health-destroying, confusion-creating constellation of symptoms affecting millions of peoople worldwide, who often turn to processed sweets and much-like-sugar carbs, which send their blood sugar levels wildly soaring and plummeting.
The term SUGAR SHOCK! is intended to encompass the often-misdiagnosed and maligned condition of reactive hypoglycemia (low blood sugar), as well as other blood sugar disorders, from insulin resistance to diabetes.
Considerable research reveals that repeatedly overconsuming sweeteners, dessert foods, and culprit, quickie carbs (such as white rice, French bread, chips, etc.) wreaks havoc on your blood sugar levels, overstimulates insulin release, triggers inflammation, and could contribute to more than 150 health problems, including obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, polycystic ovary syndrome, severe PMS, failing memory, depression, mental confusion or “brain fog,” mood swings, Candida, sexual dysfunction, infertility, wrinkles, acne, and early aging.
Victims of SUGAR SHOCK! also may experience such baffling symptoms as excessive fatigue, headaches, dizziness, cold sweats, anxiety, irritability, tremors, crying spells, drowsiness or the opposite (sleeplessness), forgetfulness, heart palpitations, nightmares, blurred vision, muscle pains, temper outbursts, suicidal thoughts, and more.
Ultimately, this insidious SUGAR SHOCK! roller-coaster effect brought on by eating too many inferior carbs hampers sufferers’ ability to function at full throttle–or even half throttle.
Does this sound like something you or a loved one is going through? Would you like to learn more about sugar shock?
Grab a sneak peek now of my book SUGAR SHOCK! now.
Or just get your copy of SUGAR SHOCK! now to read during or after the holidays. This book is ideal to read in January so you can break free of your habit to lose weight, get energy, focus better, become happier and, of course, healthier.

Wendy’s Promotion for Diabetes Urges Drinking Sugar-Loaded Frosty’s

I generally shun trite metaphors, but this news from Wendy’s, the fast food outlet, really takes the cake! (Or should I say Frosty’s?)
First a quick background is in order. If you’ve read my book SUGAR SHOCK!, you’ll know that numerous medical studies conclude that consuming too many refined sweets and refined carbs could lead to obesity, cancer, heart disease and type 2 diabetes.
Which is why cutting back on sugar is a good idea.
But a promotion at Wendy’s restaurants in the Austin, Texas area came up with an alternate idea — eat more sugar to raise money for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), which is dedicated to finding a cure for type 1 diabetes. an autoimmune disease that usually occurs in childhood.
Let’s face it: Sugar isn’t nutritionally ideal for people with either type 1 or type 2 diabetes.
Even so, as this press release points out, Pisces Foods, the local Wendy`s Franchise based in Austin, Texas, raised more than $72,000 this year for the JDRF by encouraging people to buy coupon books to get low-priced, sugar-loaded Frosty’s.