The Fitness Diva

So, can you really think yourself thin? Well, you know the saying “if you think it, you can do it”. That definitely applies to weight loss.

Making any radical change in your mind and body absolutely requires first changing the way you think. However, changing the way you think is not as easy as it sounds. If it was, we’d all be successful, healthy, rich, in a relationship with the perfect person, and fulfilling all of our dreams. But you know this is not the case for the majority.

So, why is is so hard to change the way we think? Well, for one thing, as you go through life, you tend to follow and practice the same habits repeatedly, each person settling into the patterns most comfortable and efficient for them.
These patterns tend to get hard wired into our brains, and it becomes second nature to just follow those same old thoughts and processes day after day and year after year.

If you’ve decided that you’re overweight because of outside influences such as family, environment, stress, friends, genetics, etc, and you never make a definite stand to change your belief system as far as that is concerned, then guess what? You will probably always be overweight. Because, for the most part, those things are not changeable. Your family will always be your family. Stress will always be somewhere in your life. You can’t change your genes. So, the only thing that you can change in that equation is the way you think about those things.

My family, for the most part, is on the large side. As all of my cousins, aunts and uncles aged, they packed on the pounds and decided to just accept it. I go to visit them, and they marvel at how “skinny” I am, as if it’s a major miracle. Well, first of all, I’m not skinny…I’m at a weight proportionate to my height and since I exercise, I stay toned. I also try to control my eating habits, opting to eat healthy when I can. It’s no miracle. But no matter how much I try to share what I’ve learned about a healthy lifestyle and eating habits, they just don’t buy into it. As a result, they stay overweight, and many have begun to suffer health problems because of it. You would think getting diseases like diabetes and high blood pressure would make them change their ways immediately, but they have decided that this is just the way it is.
The truth is, they are afraid of stepping out of their comfort zones and breaking those old thinking patterns that help to keep them unhealthy. It’s all in their minds that they can’t change. And, to tell the truth, they’ve never tried.

Now, I could choose to say, “well, obesity runs in my family. Just look, we’re all big.” Hell, that would be easy. It’s more fun, too. You get to eat unlimited cheeseburgers, fries, cake, peach cobbler and drink back to back sodas and beer without giving it a thought. But in the end, when you’re having to take insulin daily, or your joints are hurting and you have no energy to do anything else except sit on the couch and eat some more, it’s not that much fun at all.

I decided early on to change the way I thought about food, my body and my life.
It was not easy! It’s still not on certain days. But the first thing I had to change was how I think about food and exercise. Food no longer became comfort, entertainment or a way to pass the time. Exercise became play time. That little formula works for me.

If you find that changing your mindset is difficult when it comes to trying to lose weight, then start developing a few of these little habits to help you along:

Set a concrete goal, something tangible

An event that’s coming up, like a wedding, a vacation, or a reunion where you know you will want to be looking and feeling your best is a good one. Decide what you’re going to wear to this event and how you want to look in it. Put a clear picture of that in your mind. If you can find a picture of the outfit(s) or something similar in a magazine, cut it out and paste it right on your refrigerator or bathroom wall, right next to the mirror. That way you are constantly reminded of what you should be doing to achieve that goal.

Sign up for an athletic event and start training for it. Although you might not be in shape at the moment, knowing that you will need to be ready by the time the event rolls around should be the incentive you need to get you moving and working out.

Start keeping a journal

Writing down your goals, your thoughts and the things you need to be doing will help you to keep those things front and center in your mind. If you have a problem with snacking and impulse eating, keeping a food diary will give you more of a concrete idea of how much you actually are eating in a day, and will make you more accountable for what you put on your plate and in your mouth. You will see that within time, you’ll not only start to eat less, but also healthier.

Battle back against that little voice in your head.

You know the voice. The one that tells you that you need to eat a certain thing right now, or that tells you you’re hungry when you’re really not. The one that tells you that you’ll feel better if you just have this one thing. And let’s not forget the voice that tells you you’re too tired to exercise. Smack that voice right down, and replace it with another one. One that challenges all those negative little thoughts and helps you to do the right thing.

Surround yourself with people that are achieving the things you want to achieve

Sometimes you just need to make some new friends! If your family is not supportive, and your friends are the type that don’t exercise, and only want to go out to eat, then you need to start looking around for some new people to add to your life.
That old saying ‘birds of a feather’ is true. If you start to hang with folks that work out, participate in active events and eat healthier, you’ll find yourself doing the same. It works if you work it!

So, in a nutshell, those are but a few things you can do to change your thinking when it comes to weight loss and living a healthier lifestyle. It really does begin in the mind, and once you learn to change your mind, you can change just about anything! If you find it overwhelming to try to do all at once, just pick one of the things I suggested and start there. Then you can begin to build on that one thing, and pretty soon, the others follow.
Remember; as long as you have life and breath, nothing is impossible!

Like my tips? You can always visit my blog: http://www.thefitnessdiva.blogspot.com

Good health and fitness to you! - Fitness Diva

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