The power of positive thinking and weight loss
Although having a healthy relationship with food and maintaining good practices for keeping your body happy are important, what goes on in your head is what makes everything else work for you or against you. In order to achieve happiness and healthfulness, you must first learn how to be your biggest cheerleader. Weight loss and management is never achieved through fear, but rather through kindness, patience, and setting realistic goals.
So if you're trying to lose weight, where does this leave you? Maybe you've tried losing weight or changing your lifestyle, but it hasn't worked or you can't maintain the changes. Body image, weight, and food all tie back to what's going on in your head and what you're saying to yourself. Your thoughts and how you talk to yourself are the driving factor in living a healthy life and enjoying your physical self. Have you ever stepped on the scale to find you've lost weight, but you still beat yourself up? Ever talked down to yourself because you went on two walks, not the three you said you would do this week? This negative thinking is what is keeping you from achieving whatever health goal you have.
No matter what health goal you have for yourself, you cannot and will not achieve it if you don't learn to love your body as it is right now. Starting a new health challenge or losing weight can be very difficult, both for the mind and the body. In order to achieve your goal, your mind must be in a place of kindness, patience, and accepting realistic goals. Any goal will be impossible to achieve if your thoughts are constantly putting you down! Here are some small steps you can take to put that nagging voice back in its place.
Kindness: Whether or not people are talking about it, everyone struggles with being kind to themselves. But when we are aware of our thoughts, we can recognize the behavior and stop it. When you find yourself putting yourself down, switch that thought for a kinder thought. For example, instead of “I can’t believe I ate that burger and milkshake last night, no wonder I’m so fat” try “That milkshake and burger last night were delicious, I’m so glad I ate them.” You ended up eating the burger and milkshake, so might as well enjoy them!
Patience: Whatever skill or occupation you have mastered in life, it took patience to master that skill. The same principle applies to weight loss and weight management. It can be very hard to undo 10, 20, 40 years of eating and exercise habits, so cut yourself some slack. Instead of “I said I was going to walk three times this week and I only went once, I’m never going to reach my goal” try “I’m really proud of myself for going for a walk this week, the old me would not have even gone once!”
Be Realistic: We are not all meant to have rock-hard abs and 5% body fat. Some of us really like pasta and bread, and asking us to give them up is just not realistic. It is possible to be healthy and feel satisfied at the same time. If you consistently can’t meet a goal, ask yourself if you’ve set the right goal. There is nothing wrong with being honest and realistic with yourself, even if it means letting go of some unrealistic expectations of yourself.
You will find that reaching your goals is a lot easier when your head is cheering for you, not putting you down for every little thing.