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Welcome to April’s Slim Down
Here you’ll get nuggets from the forum, snippets and ideas from fellow No Diet Dieters, a sprinkling of science and anything else we think might raise a smile and inspire you to keep things fresh…

Soporific Salons

Last month we started off talking about chilling out a couple of times a day. And it seems sloping off for a snooze is becoming the in thing with our friends in the US.

So called ‘soporific salons’ are now open in New York so worn out workers can get a bit of shuteye instead of a sandwich in their lunch hour. Back here, it got us talking about personal v corporate responsibility for creating balance between work, rest and play.

Should businesses be installing sleep pods for us to have forty winks at lunchtime? Is it up to employers to be booting us out of the building at 6pm? Or is it time for each of us to be sensible about the hours we work?

Peer pressure is a tough nut to crack and if others stay late (In love with their work? Ineffective? Or plain ‘presenteeism’?) and fixed to their desks at lunchtime it can take a brave person to work their hours, take breaks and discourage the ‘open-all-hours’ culture. And it can be even harder when you work for yourself or are responsible for managing a busy household. But what the heck, let’s do it because it’s good for us.

So this month, how about:

  • Having a week of lunch breaks away from the TV, telephone, computer and mobile phone
  • Turning your mobile off in the evenings
  • Eating breakfast before going to work, lunching at lunchtime and doing wholefood snacking in between
  • Working your contracted hours, at the contracted time
  • Reading for pleasure on the way home from work (if you’re not driving or riding a bike!)
  • Taking a day’s holiday just because you can
  • Spring cleaning your work space
  • Starting and leaving work early
  • Doing something for the wider community as part of your working day
  • Organising a day’s work from home
  • Decamping to the boss’s office for a team picnic
  • Arranging a reflexologist to come in and service the team
  • Giving your travel money to charity and walking to work instead
  • Getting a mini trampoline for the office
  • Catching 40 winks under your desk?
We’re not claiming these to be radically new ideas but because you probably don’t do them very often, they’re different….!

On the forum

We liked this recent post from adventuregirl because it reminded us how even when things go ‘wrong’ we can get something from it. Thanks for the post Becs:

Thought I would share a small (but personally momentous) change for the better! I have just started stage 5 and was filling in my spotlight info (which I love by the way - visuals are great!), when I failed to read the instructions properly and didn't set the right spotlight task for me to do this month. I spent a heart pounding few minutes trying to get it load and reload, when I suddenly thought.... 'what the heck, be flexible and go with the one you have now'. Fortunately, it's about FUN, and I am looking forward to a month of fun activities rather than wringing my hands about doing things in the wrong order and wrecking the process. Sounds crazy, but then, if I were flexible already, I wouldn't be on this programme! A small change, but exciting and I wanted to celebrate with you all!

As the Army famously says, “The Team Works” so come and share what’s on your mind at the forum. Post your breakthrough moments, successes, ideas and challenges.