It's All In Your Head
Our thoughts have a major impact on our weight loss success.
Learning the negative and sabotaging tricks our mind plays on us can teach us how to reword, rethink, and reshape our journey.
Black or White/All or Nothing:
You are either killing this diet thing or are a complete failure.
How do we combat this negative thought process?
Do not let one poor food choice, one bad day, or a bad week derail you. Put it behind you and continue to move forward.
Justification:
Linking two unrelated ideas to justify your behavior.
Ex: "I exercised a whole hour today. It will not hurt to super size my fast food order."
How do we avoid this thought process?
Staying mindful is essential. When you find yourself trying to justify an irrational behavior, ask yourself "why" are you acting and thinking this way.
Are you truly more hungry because you have been exercising vigorously? Or, perhaps you have been craving that particular meal but know it will be a step backward in your journey. Using your exercise is just an excuse to give in to the craving.
Instead, why not have a kids meal? You still fulfill your craving but with less calories and regret.
Exaggerated Thoughts:
Have you ever slipped and ate something that you know you shouldn't and throw your hands up in failure because you think the day is ruined?
That is an exaggerated thought process that leads to weight loss failure. It was just one donut, one backward food or meal. Mark that moment as a learning opportunity and devise a plan for avoiding this slip up again.
We are not perfect creatures and expecting oneself to act perfect is a ridiculous expectation!
Mental Anchors:
Mental anchors are thoughts and beliefs that have been deeply implanted in our brains from an earlier age. Thoughts and beliefs that we subconsciously subscribe to without realizing they are guiding our behaviors.
Some examples of mental anchors:
I must clean my plate.
I absolutely cannot have a meal without dessert.
I need coffee in the morning or I cannot function.
Every meal needs bread.
Most of our mental anchors are created by parents or other loved ones who helped shape our eating behaviors as a child. It does not mean grandma is wrong because she fed you dessert with every meal. It just means, maybe grandma's strategy is not the best for you right now!
Overcoming mental anchors require that we first identify them. Then, it takes mindful intention to retrain our brains to think differently.
Weight loss is a mental game. Even when we feel physically hungry it is often because we have trained our bodies to be hungry at that particular moment due to habitual behavior driven by a belief or thought.
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