Kia Ākina

Working towards lifelong recovery from obesity

Weekly Messages

Persist – Replace procrastintion with action

We can all improve our natural persistence ability by practicing being determined, and replacing procrastination with completing something we’ve been putting off doing. In fact we can start doing this today. – Pick something small that you’ve been putting off (more…)

Eat Well – Deliberately limit portion sizes

To lose weight we have to eat less. Exercising more can do it but we’ve got to do so much exercise to burn off excess food, like 40 minutes of brisk energetic walking for just one small chocolate bar. It (more…)

Get Active – Deliberately build in more activity

When you think about it, we New Zealanders live pretty inactive lives. Just walking three blocks can seem a long way to many people. But our bodies need movement and our hearts love to pump it up a bit. We (more…)

Take Control – Routines and reality

  There’s something very real about standing on the scales and checking our weight. Becoming overweight requires a certain neglect; and part of this neglect is being dissociated from the reality of slowly putting on unnecessary fat. Becoming overweight requires (more…)

Enjoy Life – Practice being positive

One of the best strategies for enjoying life is thinking positively about all the little encounters and occurrences which make up our daily life. Positive people are constantly on the lookout for the positive angle in situations and people. But (more…)

Eat Well – Eat to live by dealing with NEEDNT foods

A fundamental issue about what food to eat is summed up beautifully in the age-old saying:  “living to eat or eating to live?” Like breathing, eating nutritious food is a deeply satisfying necessity of life. But like drugs, NEEDNT foods, (more…)

Persist – By being a good parent to our inner child

That might sound a bit weird: “be a good parent to our inner child”. But this is an excellent image to foster for the struggle towards changing an obesity lifestyle, with all of its negative patterns of overeating and inactivity, (more…)

Eat Well – Chew every mouthful thoroughly before swallowing

As we become more conscious of our eating behaviours we might be amazed at how we eat. A mouthful of food, a couple of chews and then, instead of chewing the food thoroughly we swallow, or perhaps shovel in another (more…)

Get Active – Twenty minutes of moderate activity every day

The Hillary Commission (2001) advises us to undertake 30 minutes of moderate intensity exercise at least five days a week for health. This translates to about twenty minutes of activity every day that gets you puffing a little. The key (more…)

Take Control – Plan what to eat every day

This is a big one. Planning what to eat every day takes energy, and because we’ve all got only so much conscious energy, it is best to work on it just one day at a time. That way we’re more (more…)

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