Looking good, feeling confident, being fit and taking care of your health are all important. You need to do this for yourself. Ever said

“I hate my bottom.”

“I hate my body.”

“I’m fat, therefore I’m not beautiful”?

Change this around! Leave negative thoughts in the past — put these mean little thoughts into a tiny little box — breath out all negative thoughts into this tiny little box — shut it — and keep it shut!

Take a nice fresh breath of clean positive air and move on! If you think you look good, everyone else will think so too.

Look in the mirror and say

“I love you!”

“I love you as you are.”

That’s such a good start.

If you love yourself, you will take good care of yourself.

If you think you look good, so will everyone else.

Concentrate on your best features — we all have some — and feel comfortable in your own skin.

You will succeed because you have decided to believe in yourself. Getting fit and healthy for yourself is something you are going to do absolutely for you and no one else. Being overweight doesn’t mean you don’t look attractive, or that you don’t have beautiful hair — beautiful skin — a beautiful smile and a lovely nature.

We all have an inner dialogue with ourselves. Be kind to yourself and build your own self-esteem. Emphasize your good points and build your confidence factor. Keep focused on what you are good at — not on your faults. Focus on the good things about yourself.

Busy mothers sometimes have to learn to be a little bit more selfish than they are programmed to be. Children who see their mothers take pride in their appearance in turn respect themselves more. Seeing their parents happy leads children to expect happy lives, and to take pride in their own appearance.

Recipe of the week

Beef Kebabs

Serves 6

Ingredients

40 g brown sugar, packed

2 tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp. dark sesame oil

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 tsp. ground ginger

340 g boneless beef top sirloin steaks, cut into 6 mm

thick slices

4 green onions, cut into 4 cm pieces

12 mini bamboo skewers, 15 cm

Method

Combine first 5/6 ingredients in a bowl. Place beef and half of marinade in a plastic bag, turning to coat. Close securely and marinate in refrigerator for 20 minutes. Reserve remaining marinade. Meanwhile, soak bamboo skewers in water for 10 minutes and drain. Remove beef from marinade and discard marinade. Alternately thread beef and green onion onto skewers, weaving back and forth. Arrange on broiler pan and broil 3-4 inches from heat source 3 minutes and turn. Broil another 2-3 minutes, basting with reserved marinade.

Ask Alva

I have a BMI of 26 and for the past 3 months I have completely stopped drinking carbonated drinks. I have also cut back on junk food. However, I have not seen any change in my weight, in fact it is increasing. I exercise early in the morning by running on the treadmill (0.4 km, burn 20-22 k calories). I run for 10 minutes, take short breaks, and continue until I am sweating. For breakfast, I have a cup of tea and cereal. At 4 p.m. I have a sandwich of vegetables, brown bread and a cup of tea. At 9 p.m. I have a meal, not much, a mixture of vegetables and chicken. After that, I have nothing apart from maybe some fruits and water, water, water. Does the above seem fine? I’m thinking of taking a slimming supplement, however I need to know is if I am on the right track according to your opinion, and if I need to change something? Usman

Everything you are doing seems fine. As you are not too much overweight, I think you should start to increase your running exercise time. Try to build it up by 5 minutes per day per week. So week 1 — 15 minutes per day, week 2 — 20 minutes per day — up to 30 minutes per day. Don’t worry, you can take it! Well done for trying — just keep it up! If you want to calculate your BMI yourself, there is a free calculator available at http://www.naturalhealthlines.com/eng/uae/bmi.htm.