Losing Weight is a Mental Challenge

Losing Weight is a Mental Challenge that you can WIN!

There are many reasons why we let our weight balloon:

You’ve Developed Poor Habits

You associate crazy eating with social acceptance

You Eat for Comfort

You Like to Push Your “Feel Good” Buttons

You avoided fats and didn’t notice the increase in sugar

You Think “Why Even Bother?” confusing that with „I Am Good the Way I Am“

You’re Embarrassed to Go to the Gym

You Think Black and White/All or Nothing

You’re Depressed

You’re Comparing Yourself to Others

These are solid, but not insurmountable, hurdles.

We know by now that vegetables and fruits plus lots of water should make up the largest portion of what we put into our mouths.  We also know the dangers of fast food, sugar and pre-prepared foods. Then there’s the exercise we need to be getting, even if not as difficult as Navy SEALs training.

Okay, it’s a cinch.  We know what we need to do so we do it.

Daggone!  It’s not a cinch at all!

It’s not which „diet“ you chose.  In the long run, it is the diet you can stick to that will be the perfect diet for you. If you plan to be on your diet temporarily, if you are shooting for a specific weight and then back to „normal“ eating, your weight loss will be temporary.  Which diet aka “healthy way of eating” do you want to marry until death do you part?  That question is up to YOU, not researchers or diet gurus trying to sell books, courses and products.

Weight loss isn’t about finding the perfect diet, it’s about changing your life.  

Aye, there’s the rub.  What you’ve been doing up until now has been so pleasant.  We are hardwired to do things that make us feel good.  And that __________ (pizza, ice cream, beer, MacBurger – you fill in the blank) is promising to do just that.

If you think of it, you weren’t born craving those things.  You learned to love them.  And you can learn (re-learn) to love foods that are real foods and not junk.  Sure that is harder than if you’d gone through your life with other habits.

It’s a challenge!

Everyone has to make the decision for himself or herself.  It’s a mental process, not a physical process… You need to pour yourself even more into changing your mental attitude towards food and exercise.  Having a mental plan is not as hard as it sounds.

Begin by looking at damaging habits

You may have learned to eat candy and pizza from your family and friends but you don’t have to keep doing that.  It’s all about changing habits that are destructing your success.  You might be dipping into your secretary’s bowl of goodies.  Or perhaps you spend your evenings in front of some sort of screen and absentmindedly munch something unhealthy. Maybe your portions are just too large.

Write down all the habits that are keeping you from being slender, from sleep deprivation to chocolate bars in your desk.

Pick one of those habits, maybe a relatively easy one, to change.  What do you want to do instead of that habit?  You can replace the bad habit with a good one. If you’re craving that morning pastry, for instance, eating a piece of sweet fruit instead might be easier than just going without altogether.

Bad Habit	What I do now	What I want to do from now on?	How am I going to go about it?

Questions you might ask yourself:

... am I eating the rest of this meal because I’m still hungry or am I eating it because it’s there?

... do I really need to reward or comfort myself with crappy edibles? Or is there another way?

... do I feel in control of my eating habits? 

... do I know how to deal with negative thoughts?  Your thoughts are not necessarily correct, just because they pop into your head! („Oh, I just ate a donut. Well, my diet is down the drain now so I might as well eat another one.“)

… how can I avoid unhealthy carbohydrates and processed sugar (baked sweets, candy) today?

You might also take an approach in which you lose about 10-20 pounds/kilos at a time, and then maintain that weight for 4-9 months before trying to lose another chunk.  In that “maintenance” period, try to figure out how to eat to keep that new weight.  Once you prove to yourself that you can maintain it with ease, restart your effort to lose further weight.  This way you are very confident in your ability to maintain what you’ve already lost and only need to focus on the new challenge ahead.

Tuning into our bodies is the secret.  What is really going on?  As soon as we are aware of the weight and its consequences plus the reasons we eat, we have a great chance of developing the motivation to persevere.

Find out what other people have done and decide what is right for you. Get support from your family, friends and co-workers.  If they know how important it is, they will back you.

As I’ve suggested earlier this is much more of a mental challenge than a physical one.

Wake up everyday and think, “What do I have to do today to be healthy?”  As you can see, you are rewriting your story!