Mindset shifts to help you reach your health goals
As you all know by now, I talk a lot about being in the right mindset in order to reach any health goal, including weight loss. You can try any diet you want, but shifting your mindset about weight loss is key to losing weight.
For most people, mindset is completely excluded from weight loss as if what you think and tell yourself doesn’t affect your progress. People become obsessed with counting calories, counting macros, measuring their body parts called “trouble parts” daily and obsessing over the number on the scale. They think about the number on the scale as the end goal rather than focusing on health, disease prevention, having more energy, better sleep, digestion and so on. Along with this, negative thoughts shape the way we behave. Saying “I am fat, I will never lose weight” will actually make you less eager to exercise or eat healthy because you convinced yourself it won’t happen for you.
Luckily our mind is very flexible and here are some ways how changing the mindset can help you reach your health goals:
- Switch the way you think about your goals
People focus on the number on the scale, on the weight loss but it would be easier if you focused on creating healthier habits: eating vegetables, lean protein, healthy fats, ditching the soda, sleeping better. Personally, if I catch myself gaining weight I know it came from either being stressed out, sleep deprived and not planning my meals accordingly. I try immediately to switch to my habits and the weight comes back to where it was. It’s a natural response to the body in a properly rested and fed state
2. Think long-term
This is a big one! Most people want to lose weight for an event or get bikini ready for the summer. In order to achieve that they usually heavily restrict, over exercise to be “ready”. Because they restrict so much, it is obvious that they will binge later on and put back the weight on. In order to lose weight for the long haul, you should focus in creating healthier habits and keeping that routing going rather than shocking your body for several weeks with severe dieting.
3. Start small
If you are trying to reach certain health goals, start small. It is a bad idea that you try to remove all the sugar, the gluten, the baked goods and at the alcohol, all at once plus exercise daily…be sure it won’t happen for more than a week or so. You will burn out and highly likely throw in the towel. Start slow with one habit at a time: each week remove one “bad” habit and include a new healthier one.
4. There are no good and bad foods, ditch the all-or-nothing mentality
The easiest way to create a bad relationship with food is to label food as good or bad. Give yourself the permission to eat the food from your forbidden list because that is the only sustainable way to keep your weight off. You can’t constantly be dieting and trying to remove the foods you want to eat. Try to eat according to the 80/20 principle (80% of the time or day clean, and 20% treats such as cake, glass of wine, pizza…).Food is just food, not a reward not a punishment, not good nor bad.
5. Listen your thoughts carefully
The moment you catch yourself bashing your body, pinching your “trouble body parts”, obsessively looking in the mirror for any changes or saying yourself negative things, stop. Say it loud and replace it immediately with a healthier one. “I cant loose weight, I am fat” becomes “I am worthy, I am on a journey, I can do this”. Talk to yourself like you would talk to a family member or to a friend.