Losing weight is as much about the mind as it is about the body, and with that in mind here are our top 3 mental attitudes for successful weight loss.
Understand why you eat
The first of our top 3 mental attitudes for successful weight loss is being mindful of why is it that you eat. Understanding this will enable you to control what and when you eat and lose weight quickly and successfully.
When you ask someone why they eat, you’d be surprised to find that hunger is one of the least likely reasons that they eat. In fact, eating without feeling hunger is so common that many people no longer know what real hunger feels like. We are often trapped in our routines, eating at fixed times or eating when we crave certain foods. In one sense we are lucky that we aren’t going hungry. But it also means that we are spoilt for choice which makes it harder to control what we eat.
One of the top reasons why we eat is because of emotional reasons. Stress, anger, sadness, boredom, etc., have all been associated with overeating. The fact is that most of us eat to feel better about ourselves. It has very little to do with hunger. And since it is linked to emotion, it is incredibly hard to control. It has been conditioned into our way of life. It takes some doing to unlearn it.
Ask yourself why you eat? What triggers it? Note down when you felt the urge. Next time whenever you feel something like that, make a conscious effort not to eat. Deal with it in some other way. Keep telling yourself that what you’re feeling isn’t hunger. Unlearn your default response. The more often you do this, the more likely you are to break the habit.
Temper your expectations
One of the things that often leads to unsuccessful dieting or weight loss regimens is you having too high expectations of the results. A lot of times you start doing something to lose weight but give up quickly since you feel it’s not working. Most diet plans are not short term. They require quite a bit of persistence and patience. It is just not practical to expect quickfire results.
You exercise regularly and watch what you eat. You push yourself expecting to drop pounds. But the next time you step up on the scale, it just doesn’t back you up. You feel demoralized and give up. That’s not the way to do it.
Remind yourself that you need to have the willpower to succeed. It is all in the mind. Set yourself up for success by tempering your expectations. Success just isn’t going to come overnight. You have to keep at it. Think of it as taking baby steps towards your ultimate goal. There is no use panicking if things are seemingly not going your way. You have to believe what you’re doing is right and will fetch you results. Keep motivated and success is sure to follow.
Inform yourself
Our top 3 mental attitudes for successful weight loss would not be complete without this one. There are plenty of weight loss programs out there, each offering results that are bound to astound. We are not going to say that all of them overstate the truth, but it is vital that you find out the truth.
The truth is that most weight loss programs do offer benefits, but they take the results and blow them out of proportion. These ‘fad’ diets raise your expectations and along with them the chance of disillusionment. You need to program yourself to study what you’re getting yourself into. Investigate the science behind each step you take. The myth behind high protein diets, for example, has already been busted. These diets have impressive short term results but are not really sustainable in the long term. Educate yourself, and weight loss should be a breeze.
