Your thinking affects your weight loss efforts

Achieving your weight loss goals will not only require a change in your diet, increased physical activity, but also a change in the behaviors and beliefs that may have blocked you from reaching your goals in the past. Your mindset and motivation are just as important as food and exercise in achieving your weight loss goals.

What are the first thoughts and feelings that come to your mind when you think of yourself going on a diet or going to the gym? The first thing you need to do is throw out your old dieting mentality and think of your journey as a lifestyle change. Do not think of it as something that starts and then stops. That type of thinking does not serve you.

Let's look at some ways your mindset can sabotage your weight loss efforts.

All or Nothing Thinking
Do you think that being on a diet means you must strictly follow a diet plan perfectly? Do you take dieting to the extremes and follow rigid rules dictating what you will eat, when you will eat, and when and how hard you will exercise? Studies have shown that this type of behavior commonly ends up working against you. You can start to become obsessed with thoughts of what you have deemed forbidden. This leads an overwhelming urge or craving to do exactly the opposite of what you are denying yourself.

Self-Sacrificing Thinking
Do you put the needs of others before your own? Are you too busy attending to everyone else that you neglect your own needs? While your lifestyle may be hectic, you will find that daily exercise and proper nutrition will actually help you get through your day easier. You will feel less stressed and actually have more energy to perform your daily tasks.

Dieting Means Deprivation Thinking
Do you avoid any attempts to lose weight and improve your health because you think a change in your diet means you have to give up all your favorite foods? This couldn’t be further from the truth. You will achieve long term success through eating in moderation and that includes all your favorite foods. A plan that includes foods you enjoy will help you stick with it.

Negative Thinking
Have you engaged in multiple attempts to lose weight in the past that did not give you the results that you were intending? Have you lost and regained weight repeatedly or engaged in yo-yo dieting? Do you feel pessimistic or negative about your ability to ever reach your weight loss goals? This mindset is a definite roadblock to you reaching your goals. Instead of thinking thoughts of failure, give yourself credit for trying to do something to improve your health in the first place. Make an effort to always stay positive in your weight loss journey.

So what are you thinking right now that might be holding you back from reaching your weight loss and fitness goals? Take a moment to examine the beliefs that you hold that may be preventing you from reaching your weight loss goals and make an effort to change these beliefs to your benefit.