8 Mindset Shifts For Weight Loss
Losing weight is about more than JUST tracking your nutrition and moving with intention. There is a third and vital piece that many people neglect when they start their weight loss journey. That forgotten piece is your mindset.
Your mindset is the one thing that will help to keep you moving forward day after day and enable you to create a sustainable health conscious lifestyle!
Here are eight tips to help get your mindset just as fit as your body!
Know WHY you Want to Lose Weight
Take the time to stop and reflect. What is your motivation to lose weight? Is it that you have an event coming up that you wish you were 10 lbs lighter for? Or is it that you want to be able to keep up with your children at the playground?
Short term goals and a short term timeline can be less productive than we think. Having a goal to lose a certain amount of weight in a short amount of time can increase your stress, which increases cortisol which irritates your body and actually lowers your body’s responsiveness!
Find your true WHY for wanting to lose weight. Your deep down, long term reason for making this change. That will keep you motivated and ready to work.
Break up with Your Scale
Repeat after me - “I am not a number.”
There are so many factors that go into the number that pops up on the scale when we step on it. Way more than just the amount of fat that is on our body. The scale number changes when our sleep changes, our stress changes, our hormones change and more! We should use the number on the scale for data ONLY. And not as our only source of data. A more accurate measure of our progress will also include progress photos, how our clothes fit, body measurements and our energy.
Develop a Positive Mindset
Dieting and weight loss often go hand in hand with negative feelings. There is often a fear of failure, or shame and embarrassment. Dieting can also lead us to focus on feelings of deprivations. Focusing on the things that we can not have often makes us view the world in a negative mindset. It is important when going through a weight loss journey to keep your mindset positive. When you are making a more health conscious food choice, instead of thinking of the things that you ‘can’t eat’ think instead of the thinking ‘I choose to eat this.’ You have the ability to change your perspective to see the glass half full!
The people that we surround ourselves are important to our enjoyment and success in life. It is important that the people closest to you are people who lift you up and support you. Think about your friendships - which ones are filled with positive talk? How do the people in your life make you feel? Focus your time with the people who make you feel the best.
Have Patience!
Weight loss takes TIME! A fast, crash diet will get you nowhere - and most often will set you back. Know that moving forward slow, steady and sustainably is what will get you to your goal. You will lose fat and preserve muscle this way. Remember that weight loss is not linear. You will have to practice patience when it feels like you take a step back in progress. Continuing forward will continue the progress!
Plan for Success
Ben Franklin said - “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!” Spend the time to make a plan for how you are going to get from your start to finish. Imagine your weight loss journey like a road trip. Along the way you will need to plan for grocery shopping success, plan out your meals the night before, schedule your workouts for the week etc. It is important to look ahead at your week and look for any obstacles or temptations that might come your way and decide how you will overcome them!
Put Pen to Paper
Writing things down has been shown to increase rates of success significantly. Using a food or exercise journal helps you to stay focused on your goal and gives you time to reflect and provide yourself with feedback. You can gain a lot of knowledge by looking at your patterns overtime with your nutrition, movement, water intake, hunger and mood.
Quit the Comparison Game
The saying is true - comparison is the thief of joy! Your journey is your own and unique to you. Because of this, what works for one person will not work for another in the same way. We each hold the knowledge and truth of our own journey, and though you might see a part of someone’s story on social media - we do not see their whole pathway or read their whole story. It is important to invest in what works for YOU and not what works for someone else.
And - isn’t your goal to love your own body - not theirs anyway?
Incorporate Yoga & Meditation
Yoga and meditation are proven methods to increase happiness levels, self love and a sense of overall peace and wellbeing. They have the ability to “workout” the awareness and concentration regions of the brain (this is GREAT for staying on track for weight loss, among other things). Peaceful minds tend to not binge, go off the deep end or overindulge because yoga and meditation teach us to nurture our emotions with tools other than food.
Which of these tips spoke to you today? What will you start on focusing on right away?