…on your diet.  We live in society where food temptations are everywhere. Walk through a store and you’ll see the unhealthy food items displayed front and center. Turn on the TV and you’ll be assaulted with commercials for fattening foods. Open a magazine and you’ll notice glossy pin-ups of sugary snacks. Go down the street and you’ll have restaurant signs clamoring for your attention. In addition to the abundance of tempting edibles, you also have deeply ingrained positive associations with indulging. You treat tempting food as a reward. You turn to tempting food for comfort. You rely on tempting food as stress relief. You allow tempting food to become a habit. It’s Your Turn to Win Temptation doesn’t need to have the upper hand on you anymore. It’s time to fight back using your most powerful asset: your brain. Your mind is an amazing thing. If you’re able to change your perspective,  you can change how your mind sees it and overcome negative influences.  Here’s how:  A Matter of Perspective Imagine for a moment that you’re peacefully floating down a river in an inner tube. The sun is out, the birds are chirping, and you are having a wonderful time. You feel great about the river because it is making you feel good. Now imagine that you are in a plane flying over the river. Your eye is immediately drawn to an enormous rocky waterfall. You look up the river and just around the bend is a person floating in an inner tube, having a wonderful time, headed straight for the treacherous falls. Do you think that after your plane ride you’d be happy to get an inner tube and float down the river? Of course you wouldn’t. You’ve seen that the river spells disaster. You now have a negative association (watery death) with the river rather than your initial positive association (relaxing fun). Overcoming temptation is all about building negative associations in place of existing positive ones. Use the 2 steps below to harness the power of your mind to become stronger than any temptation. Step One: Create a Strong Negative Association with all the BAD STUFF If cookies and chips and burgers are put on a pedestal in your mind as your favorite things to eat, then you will always eat unhealthy and will continue to gain weight. What do you dislike about tempting food? •    It makes you unhealthy. •    It causes weight gain. •    It drains your energy. •    It kills your confidence. •    It degrades your quality of life. •    It hurts your love life. Every time that you encounter tempting food items focus on your list of negatives. It’s time to kick those cookies off the pedestal and to put something healthy in its place. Step Two: Create a Strong Positive Association with all the GOOD STUFF Now that your mental pedestal has been cleared, put healthy food items on it. Juicy fresh fruit, crispy vegetables and savory lean meats are a great place to start. What do you love about healthy food? •    It makes you healthy. •    It causes weight loss. •    It boosts your energy. •    It builds your confidence. •    It improves your quality of life. •    It enhances your love life. Immerse yourself into the world of healthy food. Browse the aisles of a natural food store. Walk through a farmer’s market. Bring healthy snacks to work. Clear your kitchen of anything unhealthy. Using the technique above, you will soon find that healthy food is your favorite food.  And cheating will become a thing of your past. The Ripple Effect When you put time and energy into exercise it makes it easier to eat healthy. And when you eat healthy it makes you more likely to exercise. It’s the ripple effect. When you make positive strides in one area of your life, other areas will soon follow. Keep in mind that while nutrition is extremely important for fat loss, lasting results are achieved through a combination of both healthy eating and challenging exercise. Would you like to get that ripple effect started in your life? Call or email me now to begin one of my fitness programs that will quickly transform your body. Easy Chopped Chicken Salad This quick and simple salad is a delicious solution to the age-old question, “What’s for dinner?” It’s filled with wholesome ingredients, protein and fiber to enhance your hard-earned fitness results. Servings: 6 Here’s what you need… For the salad: •    2 cooked chicken breasts, chopped •    ½ cup cherry tomatoes, quartered •    1 Tablespoon red onion, minced •    ½ cup cucumber, chopped •    4 cups romaine lettuce, chopped •    4 strips, cooked nitrate-free bacon, chopped •    1 avocado, chopped For the dressing: •    ⅛ cup olive oil •    2 Tablespoons lemon juice •    1 packet stevia •    1 teaspoon crushed garlic •    1 teaspoon Dijon mustard Instructions: 1.    Combine all of the salad ingredients in a large salad bowl. Mix to combine. 2.    Combine all of the dressing ingredients in a small bowl. Drizzle over the salad and serve. Nutritional Analysis: One serving equals: 218 calories, 12g fat, 189mg sodium, 5g carbohydrate, 4g fiber, and 22g protein