Are Thoughts Keeping You Fat?

Did you know that your mind set could be causing you problems if you are trying to lose weight? Your thoughts and habits play essential roles in determining your weight loss success or failure. Learning to be aware of the thoughts that sabotage goals can improve your ability to not only lose weight but keep it off.

Some Tips

• Weight gain is a gradual process that creeps up on you over several years. One day, you realize that you are overweight, and now you are in a panic to lose weight immediately. If it took you a long time to put the weight on it will take a while to lose fat and keep it off. Setting an expectation to lose weight slowly and sustainably over six months or more is one of the most effective sustainable plans.
• Remember that you have embarked on a new and healthy lifestyle! Treats are allowed in this lifestyle, in moderation of course. Having an all or nothing attitude is just setting yourself up for failure. Set yourself up for success! Every little decision makes a difference in creating an overall healthier you. Celebrating milestones will help you stay on track with your new and healthy lifestyle.
• Create small goals that you can integrate into your life and do them for weeks and months, until they become part of your new habits.
  Examples would include portion control, exercising for 15 – 30 minutes daily, eating 10 servings of fruits and vegetables, drinking 8 – 10 servings of water daily, and restricting alcohol intake.
  These behaviours are keys to success.
• Many people think that if a food is marketed as a diet food, or as something healthy, that they can eat as much of it as they want. A calorie is a calorie, regardless if it’s a healthy calorie or not. Nuts, olive oil, avocado, fruit, etc… they are all healthy foods, but can easily be overeaten.
• Successful weight loss happens when you really want to achieve your goal. If you want to lose weight you have to have deep motivation for the tough moments when you want to give up. The most successful people have a strong emotional reason to lose weight.