Your burning desire might be to lose weight and to do it quickly, but do you want the inevitable consequences that come with fast weight loss?

That is more fat, less muscle and an even bigger fight to lose the weight again? If you've been trying to lose weight and feel that it's a never-ending struggle and you'd like to know how to break free then read on.

Self-talk is the inner chatter that accompanies us in most of our waking moments. Your self-talk can be a powerful aid to your performance, or it can be destructive.

What do you say when you talk to yourself? If you're like many of us, your self-talk is a caustic mixture of judgements, complaints, and verbal abuse, in the form of "tapes" - mental recordings - that you've imprinted on your mind and play over and over again.

When you're stressed, you can feel like a hamster on a treadmill, running faster and faster but staying in the same place. It's all very well for people to tell you that you should "look after yourself", but what does that mean? If you're working hard or are taking care of others, you may feel as if there's no time left for you, but it's vital that you take some time for yourself.

Negative self-talk is the flip-side of criticism. One is self-perpetuated, while the other is usually unsolicited and unwelcome. Both lead to erosion of self-esteem and personal worth.

Unfortunately, it can be difficult to control negative words that come from the mouths of others. It is possible, however, to recognize a behaviour pattern of negative self-talk and make positive changes.

According to recent research, the average person has a different thought approximately every two to three minutes. Today's work executives suffer especially frequent headaches at the end of their work days. The main culprit in this rash of executive stress and burnout in today's world is negative thinking. Typical work executives spend so much time thinking and subconsciously listening to each of their separate thoughts that the negative mental banter that is allowed to filter into their conscious minds becomes detrimental to their well-being.