I just wanted to write this post as a reminder of my post Food Cravings: 5 Lies Your Addiction Tells You.  My desire to write this was sparked today when I was out and about.  As it is a Bank Holiday here in the UK, we went to one of our local markets.  At this local market something caught my eye:

Yes that is right!  START THE DIET TOMORROW!

In my article I explain how 1 of our excuses we give ourselves when it comes to our food addictions is to say “Oh I will stop eating this tomorrow..I will start my diet then”.  Looks like this excuse is being encouraged!

This is just a warning to be careful not to be suckered into your excuses and not to be encouraged by advertisements or signs.  Be aware, have a plan and stick to it.  Don’t give up on your health for a moments taste.

To help you why not reread my article to refresh you on some of the lies you tell yourself to continue your bad food habits: Food Cravings: Lies Your Addiction Tells You

Hope everyone had a great Bank Holiday!

Since I began the process of refining my diet to help myself overcome cravings and health issues, I have often been met with hostility and defensiveness. It has taught me to appreciate that what I know about particular foods and why I choose to cut them out, doesn’t mean that others are ready to hear the truth or want to accept it. We are all on our own paths and we have to make our own decisions, however it is this barrier (defensiveness) people put up that is a common sign of addiction and so I want to address it here.

No one wants to admit or acknowledge that their favorite foods or indulgences are bad for them. So what we do is we concoct reasons and justifications as to why it is ok for us to indulge. We don’t have to feel guilty for our indulgences because we have lots of excuses for them. Facing the reality of the situation is scarey because we may not be ready to face the feelings that our addictions are repressing.

When I first decided to make some dietary adjustments, I thought that I would be able to do it overnight. This sent me into a panic and I ended up having a huge binge. The next day when my new diet was supposed to start, I went shopping. I felt obsessed over food and HAD to buy something junk related just to make me feel ok. It was a security for me. I felt comfort knowing that I had a bag of crisp in my cupboard! Sometimes you do have to take things slowly, but it made me realize how attached one can be to food. I still have justifications pop up into my head sometimes about why it would be ok if I had a chocolate bar or some junk. They are much weaker now then they were in the beginning and I don’t experience them very often anymore, but they are a reminder of how powerful comfort eating can be.

Below I have covered 5 common lies people tell themselves when it comes to their craved foods to help you to acknowledge some of your own lies you may be holding about your craved foods.

5 Common Lies

“It makes me feel good”

Whenever someone tells me that they continue to eat chocolate or junk food because it makes them feel good, my first response is always “But for how long?”. In reality, the good feelings experiences by our favorite foods are short lived. Most of the time your craved food makes you feel bad, but by the time you feel bad you may not associate the food with negative feelings of consequences.

For example for me, despite chocolate making me feeling food in the moment, it would leave me in a state of depression. It would also give me terrible mood swings the next and because I continually fed my addiction daily, I would feel out of control emotionally all the time. I would be angry and upset. I would feel like I was all over the place and that no one loved me. I would put a meaning to my feelings of depression and sadness that really had nothing to do with them – the only thing that did was my addiction to chocolate!

On top of this I spent most of my time obsessing. I would go late to the shops to get some, I would get cranky if I didn’t have some when I wanted it right then. I ruined my relationships with people over my moods and instability.

No one likes to feel like something is controlling us – food addictions like any addiction, makes us feel bad not good.

“It’s how I cope with stress”

From my response to the above lie, do you really that your food addiction helps you deal with stress? It makes more sense to say it adds to it. It is a cause of stress.

Obsessing over it, always craving and needing the craved item then and there is a cause of stress. I never enjoyed my cravings. I enjoyed the indulgence for a split second, but wandering off to the shops every time I needed some, or the after effects were not fun at all.

Food addiction is our way of trying to cope with uncomfortable feelings/feelings of distress. However food addiction is a way of not dealing with something, with not dealing with feelings, that really need to be addressed. By not dealing with your feelings, by allowing them to flow through you, you ultimately leave yourself with a weight on your shoulder, adding to your stress not relieving it.

You will find it far more rewarding to deal with the feelings that arise in you, then to block them. The pain is there only for a little while and the relief you feel afterwards is beautiful – a great feeling you will never get from a chocolate bar.

“There’s no harm in just one”

Unfortunately one doesn’t mean one when it comes to food addiction. It means one after another, again and again and again. Have your ever been able to take one bite of your favorite food and not take anymore? I haven’t. The only way I was successful at giving up chocolate was to completely eliminate it from my life. Even when I have tried to treat myself with one, months later, I have found it traps me in its clutches again.

It isn’t a treat anyway. Chocolate, refined sugar and all the other processed junk foods aren’t treats. Why I ever considered making myself moody, irritable and depressed as a treat is beyond my comprehension now – bit I did.

“I’ll stop tomorrow”

I have told myself this one many times, it is the way my addiction has kept me hooked. This one has even sent me into a binge the night before as thought I felt desperate to cram in as much chocolate as I could before ultimately giving up the next day.

Unfortunately this just turned into a vicious cycle and I got no where. I would make the same promise every day.

“I deserve a little pleasure”

Is it really a pleasure anymore?  Any addiction isn’t really a pleasure – maybe in the few moments of tasting your favored food you might feel pleasure.  Having your faved pleasure once in a while may very well be a pleasure.  But overindulgence on a regular basis is not pleasure.  Eating and bingeing daily is not pleasure.

Do you tell yourself any of these?  Can you add any to the list?  Please share by commenting below

For more information on cravings: Stop Food Cravings

So by you probably have a better indication of the type of person you are, how you eat and what specific goals you would like to obtain when it comes to losing weight.  So in the next few posts I just going to go through specific disciplines or aids that will help you stay on track with your progress and success.

Believe You Can

So you have decided to go on a diet 6 times and now you are on your 7^th. No one seems to be supporting you, your family entices you into eating something you love at every moment, telling you, you are silly and you don’t need to lose weight. If you are honest, you really don’t believe you are going to do it, do you?

And that is where the fault lies. You need to believe in your self.

Having faith in you is a decision. Many of us battle with this – we don’t believe we can lose the weight, curb the craving or make it past the front door alive! But faith is the foundation of behavior and it is a decision you can make.

Believing in yourself or rather making the decision to believe in yourself can be one of the simplest things you do and be one of the most helpful in combating your cravings and reducing your weight. This mindset will bring about the you want. It will lay the foundation for positive outcomes.

Don’t wait until all the doubt, unbelief and unanswered questions have been taken care of before you decide to put your trust in yourself. Face it all with confidence.

(Another help article in reference to beliefs: 3 Beliefs You Need)

Stick to It

Counting the cost of the large step you have made will help prepare you for the dark times, the low moments when you think your decision seems foolish, useless and a major inconvenience.

Rationalization has been responsible for sabotaging millions of decisions all over the world. Have you rationalized making a certain decision when it comes to your weight loss like these?

“It’s really not that bad”.

“I’ll start tomorrow”.

“It won’t hurt this one more time”.

“This will be the last one”.

“I shouldn’t oppress myself”.

“I’ve worked really hard, I deserve it”.

“Just a taste”

First of all, get it in context.

A craving creates tunnel vision – in the midst of a craving all that matters is that craving – it’s the most important thing in the world at that very moment. You need to step back and count your blessings. An important part of sticking to your diet plan is to allow for failure or slip-ups. Failures are building blocks for success in a way. Most people don’t have the courage to risk failure so put their selves out of the situation and don’t lose weight or attempt a lifestyle change i.e. their diet.

When you fail, which you will at times, don’t get discouraged. See it as a learning experience. Note how you felt before, during and after your slip-up.

Did the food have the desired effect you were looking for?

What do you think made you slip-up?

Slip-Ups can tell you a lot about yourself and also can be very eye opening. When I first changed my diet in the way I will lay forth to you, I was amazed at how often I turned to food for emotional comfort not to mention how many different cravings I had and how they made me feel physically and emotionally. I often discovered that after a while of being aware the food I had wanted and had given into just made me feel very tired or simply was not giving me what I used to get from it: comfort and joy.

Refresh Your Decision Daily

Now that you have written your decisions down, keep them by your bedside. When you wake up in the morning and lift your head off the pillow, grab that piece of paper and read through your decisions. I know this may sound like the hardest thing to do in the morning if you aren’t the morning type, but it is important to start your day on the right side of the bed as opposed to the wrong.

Read through your decisions and believe in them. Make yourself aware of them. This is your time to organize your day to succeed.

Related Articles:

Weight Loss Mindset 1: Making The Decision To Change

Weight Loss Mindset 2: Being Honest With Yourself

Weight Loss Mindset 3: Figuring Out The Why

Weight Loss Mindset 4: Starting On The Right Foot

Weight Loss Mindset 5: Believe You Can, Stick To It & Refresh Daily

There are many decisions that can be successful only when they are made on the backs of other decisions. For example, if you do not decide to eat healthier foods, you will not lose weight.

Your success in quitting the junk and eating better to lose weight will be dependent on your ability to remain focused as you deal with the withdrawal from certain foods you love (like chocolate, bread, dairy).

One of the keys to succeeding is to treat decision-making like building a house. You lay the foundation before you build the walls. Although it is exciting to add the final touches – decoration – they can be completed only when the rest of the house is finished.

We would all love the blessings of freedom from bad habits, bad food choices, irritating compulsions to eat, and bingeing but first we must lay the foundation.

Bundling Your Decisions

Often, one large decision will involve many smaller but equally important decisions. Let’s look at an example. Say you are trying to get over a sugar addiction. You can’t keep away from your sweets to save your life! This may involve your decision to stay away from donut shops and other places where temptation rears its ugly head. It also may mean avoiding situations that are stressful because stress is another factor that can lead you to your sweet treats.

You may therefore need to make a list of hot places and avoid them for a certain period of time until you are confident you can resist their temptations. Often failure of a large battle is as a result of the small battles, which we all face throughout the day. Making a hard decision is very stressful too. When you feel like you are one step away from failing, decide right then and there to get alone and recharge.

The next points to consider, and that will be considered in the next few posts, are going to evolve around disciplines that will become the foundation of all the decisions you will make and are important in ensuring you stay on track!

Related Articles:

Weight Loss Mindset 1: Making The Decision To Change

Weight Loss Mindset 2: Being Honest With Yourself

Weight Loss Mindset 3: Figuring Out The Why

Weight Loss Mindset 4: Starting On The Right Foot

Weight Loss Mindset 5: Believe You Can, Stick To It & Refresh Daily

So in Weight Loss Mindset Part 1 I talked about making the decision to change, when it comes to weight loss or cravings. Hopefully you took the time to observe yourself throughout the day to see what you are actually eating, whether you are making conscious decisions in what you choose to eat and what triggers cravings for food (whether emotional or simply because you haven’t been eating enough).

You may find the activity in Part 1 quite an eye opener. You may not have realized how often you use food to comfort you emotionally or may not have realized how often you just simply eat/snack. Before we can take this any further though I think it is important to address some of the issues that can stop us being successful in our decision-making. Then I will come back to how we can progress further we our new found knowledge.

Part 2:

Before you can begin to even think about decision-making, you have to be honest with yourself. Most people trying to lose weight or combat a craving say they struggle. The number one phrase I hear from people trying to lose weight or give up something they love (like chocolate) is “I’m struggling”.

It would be refreshing to hear someone say “I’m lazy, I’ve compromised, and I’m blowing it”. You can move forward from here (I am not saying it isn’t hard to change or that you won’t struggle, but usually when people say they are struggling it is an excuse to indulge more so than a honest expression of what is happening to them).

You don’t have to feel guilty for the way you are, or to beat yourself up for not being better. It is about being true to you. Yes, you can have regrets – repenting can be one of the most powerful forms of decision, but to beat yourself up can be just as detrimental to your progress as can lying.

For example, most people who are overweight are compulsive eaters (even thinner people can be this way – I know some very skinny people who can’t give up their chocolate addiction). Now if you were to ask them or even yourself (because you most likely are if you are reading this) whether you desire to eat a chocolate bar a day for the rest of your life, you would probably answer of course not. However, if I was to ask you if you wanted to be free from food addiction, filled with spirit and contentment and joy you would probably answer yes – it is your heart’s desire. It is a desire that lives constantly inside you, even during the most painful times of indulgence. It is there but for most remains there. A desire never fulfilled due to the clutches of addiction and craving and feeling fat.

Of course, it would be false of me to say that you wouldn’t want to eat a chocolate bar. But you don’t always hunger after junk food either do you?

The temptation for the compulsive eater comes like a powerful tornado – it whips you up into a whirlwind of emotion and inspires an imagination of pleasure. These storms have triggers. These triggers are usually something like hurtful words from a spouse, feelings of depression or insecurity or of not being in control, a bad day at the office etc. I could list books worth. You become seduced by the food for its comfort and once you have fulfilled that feeling, that feeling is soon swept away and met with guilt and despair. As a result we often tell ourselves we will be stronger next time.

Many health food “gurus” or diet systems will tell you that it is perfectly ok to compromise – indulge now and then. But compromising between the two desires of the heart is not the answer.

So how can I be successful in making a decision and seeing it through? See Part 3…

Related Articles:

Weight Loss Mindset 1: Making The Decision To Change

Weight Loss Mindset 2: Being Honest With Yourself

Weight Loss Mindset 3: Figuring Out The Why

Weight Loss Mindset 4: Starting On The Right Foot

Weight Loss Mindset 5: Believe You Can, Stick To It & Refresh Daily

I have decided to put a little series together about the weight loss mindset and how to overcome some of the difficulties that we face including sticking to decisions and being honest with ourselves. If anything I hope that you will find these posts useful in your own pursuits in regards to weight loss or craving control.

I will be adding activities within my posts to help you think more critically about what could be holding you back or where you can start in freeing yourself from a lifetime of habits and weight issues. These activities are things I have used to help myself overcome many of my food cravings that have held me back on my path to a healthier existance and without them I don’t think I would have progressed as far as I have so far.

So here goes for the first part…

Where is that moment, that defining moment, when we rise above those outside influences and develop our own individuality – the moment of decision? When is that moment when we choose to do what we know deep down is right and best for ourselves? Do we need to reach the brink of explosion? Do we need to push ourselves over the edge in order to get there? Sometimes. But that doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing, it can be the start of something wonderful.

There are powerful influences clamouring for that place inside of you that makes choices, whether they are your eating habits, shopping habits or even your faith. We can make decisions that are easy, that follow the norm and we can make decisions that are painful, that are downright difficult and even isolate us from the world around us, for a while (or so it can seem).

Eating is ingrained in our culture as a social thing. We celebrate birthdays, thanksgiving, Christmas with a delicious table full of different foods. We get together with friends over lunch or dinner. It is familiar to get stuck to what our society does and can be difficult to let go of when we want to change our ways and live a healthier lifestyle despite what the rest of the world wants to do and wants us to do.

Losing weight is a step towards a healthier lifestyle that can be met with pessimism from others who want you to remain in their world of obesity and cakes. It can be what breaks you and convinces you back into habits you are desperate to leave behind.

But at the end of the day, it is our decision to make.

We can either continue to follow the herd and fool ourselves into happiness or we can break free and make the changes we have always wanted to make.

Decision-making has creative power. Decisions have their own inaction that can build in momentum. Many people have dreamt of what they want to do and made it happen. The world is full of dreamers, but it is only those who act on their dreams who get to where they want.

So much of daily life ends up like this – devoid of decisions. That isn’t such a bad thing if our history had been built on good choices, but if not we must stop and dismantle the destructive decisions and any patterns that dictate unconscious behavior and create new healthy decisions. This is crucial in our weight loss endeavors but in literally every aspect of life.

This can be extremely tough at first, because we are so used to being carried along in a culture that has made nearly every decision for us – have you ever stood back and questioned whether your society’s decision making really works in favor of you?

All of us at some point have moaned about the many decisions that have been made for us or moaned about our weight or our living conditions etc. But what have we done about it?

What have you done about it?

Instead of moaning and praying that things will work out it is time to believe in yourself and the decisions you want for yourself and act.

You have all you need in order to change.

Related Articles:

Weight Loss Mindset 1: Making The Decision To Change

Weight Loss Mindset 2: Being Honest With Yourself

Weight Loss Mindset 3: Figuring Out The Why

Weight Loss Mindset 4: Starting On The Right Foot

Weight Loss Mindset 5: Believe You Can, Stick To It & Refresh Daily

When following a weight loss program or someone else’s guidance in trying to achieve our slimmer figures, we can sometimes give up too quickly and easily before we see any real results from it. We then deem it a failure on the part of the weight loss program as opposed to really evaluating the true cause of our failure. Yes it could be as a result of the program but we will never really know this because we gave up so soon.

Now giving up could be as a result of fear and insecurity. Many of us don’t go after what we truly want because we are fearful or unsure. We end up living a life that just doesn’t feel right. Most of us also aren’t fully or consciously aware of this fear. We don’t know or simply do not understand what is holding us back from what we want in life.

If you truly want to lose weight and it is something that consumes you on a daily basis – don’t give up on it.

Of course losing weight can have a number of meanings for us other than just losing weight. It can symbolize better health, reducing an illness or many other things.

Do you want to look back and regret that you never lost weight or made your life easier and more healthful because of fear and insecurity? Do you want to regret not making the right choices for yourself and being a good example for your children?

When pursuing my own goals in weight loss and health, one of my biggest motivations was my son. I wanted to be a good role model and wanted him to have a healthy start in life. I didn’t want to have a negative influence on him (or what I saw as a negative influence on him) and wanted to show him and be able to show him that with determination and perseverance you can achieve the goals you set for yourself.

It can be very difficult to find your hearts true desire – the real reason for your weight loss goals as opposed to the superficial reasons – because of social conditioning. We to some extent are bound up in society’s habits and restrictions, so knowing what we want can be hard to assess. It is important that you take some time to really get to the root reasons for wanting to lose weight so you have something more valid to work towards. Superficial goals don’t always give you the determination you need to succeed or to keep going when you doubt yourself.

Finding your true reasons for weight loss will take care of the motivation. My son was only one reason for me and wouldn’t necessarily have been a big enough reason to change without my other personal motivations. I wanted to overcome my asthma and allergies. I wanted to feel calm and more at peace. I have overcome my asthma and allergies now and do feel calmer (although this is something I am still working on). The point is if you give up too soon you will never reach your goals.

Add Emotion To Your Goals

Another reason to find your true reasons for losing weight is to add emotion. The thought of spending another second being controlled by my asthma was a good starting point for me. I was sick of it. I was sick of constantly having a runny nose, no matter what time of year. Writing down my reasons with emotion really helped me stay focused. With weight loss you are more likely to see results a LOT sooner than I did with my asthma. It took me a long while before I saw any improvement and I tried a lot of things. I think overcoming these issues really set me up with becoming more focused with my weight loss after pregnancy and so I use them to remind me of what perseverance can achieve for me.

The more reasons you can come up with to achieve your goal the better. The more fed up you will get with your current situation and the more likely you will persevere.

It will also help you to not give up due to slow progress.

Don’t Give Up If Your Progress Is Slow

If you are pursuing your true desires for weight loss, then you will find you are less likely to quit early on. When your desire and need is so strong, your progress isn’t as relevant as it would be if you had no clear direction or no real want.

Of course you may feel discouraged if you suddenly come to a halt in your progress. You may be unsure how to overcome it and feel like giving up. Writing down a plan of action will help overcome this – whether that is to read up more within nutrition or to find inspiration to keep you going.

Remember though you can’t change everything all at once and so quickly. Yes seeing some quick results is a good sign that you are on the right path but really you should be aiming for slow steady progress. This will not only make sure you keep the weight off for good but will also allow you to enjoy the progress, focus on the good and not feel panicked when there seems like no progress has been made, because most likely there has been progress you just can’t physically see it yet.

Be Flexible

Don’t let who you are now stop you from being who you want to be. Be willing to make changes to your lifestyle, learn new things if you need to, so you can reach your goal of being slimmer and healthier. If you aren’t willing to change and be flexible, then you will find that your goals will be unreachable.

If it feels quite daunting to change, make small progressive changes to help you lose weight. For example, as mentioned in Obstacle No.1, start by changing your breakfast to something healthier for a few weeks and then move on to changing other meals in your day. Also incorporate exercise in slowly too if its something you really struggle with.

This leads me to say…

Don’t Give Up Out Of Laziness!

There are no shortcuts to achieving your goals. If you want something then you have to work for it. As you work at it you will find it does become easier especially as it becomes your new habit(s).

Living a lazy lifestyle, never achieving anything will ultimately lead to dissatisfaction. Start living a productive life and you will reap the benefits. Living a satisfying life is hard work though, especially at first but that shouldn’t’ put you off achieving your goals.

Success Is Closer Than You Think

Don’t give up, even when you want to! You could be so close to achieving your goals – closer than you think! If you give up, you have to start the cycle all over again. Persevere and if you aren’t gaining quick results, at least be happy in the knowledge that you are building a great life long habit. Eating right and exercising are crucial parts to any health/weight loss program.

If you give up on your weight loss goals, how do you know you won’t give up on other goals in life just as easily? Maybe you do. I think that for me, achieving an asthma and allergy free life has been an important and crucial achievement in my life. It has made me realize ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE if I persevere. It makes achieving other goals a lot easier, because I know eventually I will get to where I want to be and as a result I am living a much more fulfilling and content life.

One Tip To Get You Going

Start visualizing what you want now. The more and more you visualize where you want to be the more focused you will be and the more likely you will persevere. Visualize yourself slim, confident and happy. Visualize yourself involved in exercise and enjoying it. Visualize how much energy you have.

Visualizing can be very powerful but the key is to be consistent with it and to keep believing in yourself.

Remember: It is possible for you to lose weight, you are able to lose weight and you deserve to lose weight. Just don’t give up too soon before you can see results.

Helpful Posts:

Weight Loss Goals Part One: Creating A Positive Weight Loss Mindset

Weight Loss Goals Part Two: The 3 Beliefs You Need For Weight Loss Success

Weight Loss Goals Part Three: Weight Loss Planning

Previous Post: Weight Loss Obstacle NO.1: Always Looking For The Shortcut

If we take a look at the weight loss market today, it is riddled with quick and easy weight loss solutions – lose weight with as little as 5 minutes work a week, lose weight instantly, diet pills, secret formulas or any other newly discovered shortcut to weight loss heaven. You rarely ever see anyone talking about consistency and hard work.

However weight loss success is rarely easy and rarely ever comes without any hard work or consistency. You can choose a path of least resistance, going at your own pace and end up where you want to be later down the line. But this won’t give you instant results or instant gratification either.

Changing a lifetime of habits is not going to be solved in a simple pill or 5 minute a week formula and if it is solved – it will be short lived. If you want to lose weight for good you need to work at it and be consistent in your efforts – whether that is gradually working towards introducing more and more fresh whole foods, increasing your weekly exercise schedule or whether you suddenly change your entire lifestyle overnight. You have to keep at it for lasting results.

It is very easy to get stuck in the cycle of wanting one thing after another and thinking that THIS will be the cure to your weight loss woes (the latest diet pill or exercise equipment to flatten your abs). Advertisers and marketers are just good at their jobs. Buying the item gives you instant gratification but its short lived and doesn’t get you anywhere closer to your weight loss goals.

When you aren’t seeing instant results from the lifestyle choices you have made and feel like you are getting suckered into another weight loss cure, step back and assess it for what it is. Think about past products/diet programs you have purchased and that you haven’t use or haven’t worked. This should help you and stop you from making the same mistake again.

What about the programs/products that do work? Even if you do find a quick fix product that does, I guarantee that it won’t be easy to maintain. So even with quick fix solutions you still have to put the hard work in – e.g. going on a crash diet and not giving into major cravings from lack of food. In fact quick fix solutions are much more work than simple diet and exercise.

It doesn’t have to be hard to change your lifestyle and make healthier choices, it can be effortless if you can provide your body with the right nutrition – the diet itself doesn’t have to be hard, neither does the exercise you choose to do (pick something enjoyable!). But learning and becoming knowledgeable in what you need to achieve can be hard work and this is where you really need to take the time and effort. Once you have the right knowledge you can implement it. On a long-term basis, for the least amount of effort you should ease into a new lifestyle change. Start by changing your breakfast to something healthier, then a few weeks later your lunch as well. You can also increase exercise as the weeks go by. This will make the transition to a healthier slimmer you easier and more successful. You won’t get instant gratification from it like you will from eating one of your favorite junk foods but you will have long lasting results. You will also enjoy the process a lot more than if you chose to struggle to find your instant cure or easy weight loss solution. They don’t exist.

There are easy ways to eat, optimum ways to eat for us and many people will claim it is an easy way to live and easy way to lose weight BUT somewhere among it will be some hard work and effort. Whether that is struggling to adapt to a new lifestyle (old habits die hard), overcoming emotional eating, cravings or struggling to get enough exercise in. There is always something. Pills and products cannot solve them – only you can.

Make a weight loss plan, work hard and maintain it and you will soon be seeing results. Maybe you won’t get them instantly but just knowing you are making the right choice for your health and body, should be enough motivation to move you forward and closer to your weight loss goals.

Helpful Articles:

Weight Loss Goals Part One: Creating A Positive Weight Loss Mindset

Weight Loss Goals Part Two: The 3 Beliefs You Need For Weight Loss Success

Weight Loss Goals Part Three: Weight Loss Planning

Negative thinking can prevent you from living the life you want to live and becoming the slimmer lighter you: the you, you want to be. We may not even be aware of how negative we are as individuals as it can become part and parcel of who we are and the people we are around.

As children we seek acceptance from others around us, especially our parents. So we tend to absorb those ways of thinking and being into our own patterns without question. If we have negative parents and negative friends, we can become negative ourselves. I didn’t fully realize the extent of my negativity until someone pointed it out to me – since that time I have been able to turn it around quite substantially, but sometimes all habits creep in.

When we decide to look at the world honestly we might feel truly entrenched in these negative thought processes and feelings may arise against our ideal vision of ourselves.

Becoming aware of the negativity in your thoughts, speech and writing is the first step to changing it. By becoming aware and changing the way you perceive the world and how you choose to address others and talk to others can have a dramatic effect on your health and well being.

The more often you choose to focus on the positive the more you will notice the negative and will be able to step away from it.

Always focus on what you do want, what you love, what you enjoy and what you desire rather than on anything you perceive as a problematic. This will have a huge impact on your weight loss success.

Thoughts are extremely powerful and can help you get to where you want to be but can also hinder you and prevent you from losing weight.

What do you want to experience? Do you focus on your joy and love? (The slimmer fit you) Or do you focus on how difficult it is for you to lose weight and how unlikely it is you will lose weight or be able to stop overeating?

Keep your outlook light. This doesn’t mean be unrealistic – we all have challenge in our life, but try to view your experience as a game. Choose to enjoy your time. Remember your end goal: to be slimmer.

It cannot be said enough how important it is to maintain a positive outlook during the process of overcoming cravings. I discovered when I was overcoming mine that I put those foods I adored and craved on a pedestal. It was only by seeing that food for what it was and taken it off that pedestal that I was able to move forward.

Does that food love you back the way you love it? NO!

Changing your eating habits is a CHOICE. If you are offered something that doesn’t fit in with that choice, try to avoid saying things like “I am not allowed that” or “I can’t eat that”. Instead try to express yourself in a better way that benefits you and your journey e.g. “No thank you, I am choosing not to eat that way” or “It is my choice and I love it”.

Embrace and celebrate your lifestyle choices.  Enjoy the journey and weight loss will be easier than you think!

Previous Post: Sleep & Its Importance For Health & Weight Loss

Deciding to lose weight or to get slimmer isn’t always enough to get where we want to be. Many of us struggle with diets, exercise and other lose weight facilitators because we lack the right direction or we don’t have enough knowledge to be able to pull it off. Most importantly we lack a plan.

When making lifestyle changes, sometimes it isn’t enough to just make the decision to change that habit or pattern. We have become so accustomed to living a certain way that the only hope we have of getting out of it is to create a plan that can help us achieve the goals we want. A plan is not only important for helping us to achieve our goals and set out what we need to do, but it is also important to write up a plan – nice and neatly – to show its importance to us. Losing weight is very important to a lot of us – it is our route to being healthier, to being slimmer. Noting down on a scrap piece of paper our plan of action to achieve our outcome/goal will only get forgotten and won’t be taken seriously. Writing our plan up, printing it off (and even framing it if you must) will show how important the plan is to you and will place in your mind this importance on a subconscious level. This is crucial!

So if you want to take your goal of weight loss seriously you must write a plan. Open word or notepad on your computer and start planning! This may take some time especially if you lack the knowledge needed to create an effective plan, but there are many resources online that can help you with your meal plans section (some you may have to pay for, like my own plans on this website and please feel free to email me if you need any help to write this) and there is also a lot of help online for writing other aspects of your plan too.

Below are some questions you should answer in your plan:

1.What do you want?

You may be tempted to write “to lose weight” here, but this is a negative outcome. It is much more beneficial for your thinking mind to work towards something as opposed to trying to avoid or move away from something. “To lose weight” implies you want to move away from something, so is negative. Instead frame your answer in a positive way – positive meaning moving towards something like “to be slimmer”

Set a date to achieve your weight loss goal and how much you want to lose – for in 6 months time is a good goal to aim for so set it for 10^th October or whatever you want it to be.

2. How will you know you are succeeding/have succeeded?

It is important to know that you are on the right track with your goal. You need the right feedback in the right quantity and it needs to be accurate. So try setting realistic goals – whether you are going to look at your weight loss on a weekly/monthly basis etc. I would set a plan for 6 months as well. So use this to work out what you want in 6 months time as well as working up to the end of the 6 months.

3. What resources do you have and what obstacles do you have for achieving your goal?

Exercise equipment, weight loss support from friends/family, anyone you can follow or learn from, personal qualities, knowledge in nutrition and diet overcoming cravings, emotional eating etc.

4. What do you need to do to achieve your goal?

Under this section you can write a list of things you need to do in order to achieve your weight loss goal and overcome the obstacles you face (e.g. not enough knowledge on diet, fitting in exercise around my family). Of course you may be tempted to write general statements here like: eat healthier, exercise daily – but this isn’t what you need. You need to be specific about what is standing in your way currently and how to overcome it. Here is a sample list of things you can work on:

• Educate myself on diet and what foods to eat.

• Educate myself on emotional eating and cravings so I can overcome these obstacles when they arise.

• Increase my consumption of fruits and vegetables.

• Pick an exercise I enjoy and do it for at least half an hour daily.

• Work out a plan to slowly ease myself into a better eating habit e.g. Starting with change my breakfast to something healthier (like a fruit smoothie) for week 1 (or first month) and then adding in a healthier lunch and then two weeks later a healthier dinner. Also what about changing snacks?

• Create a perfect vision to help me get through the toughs time.

Also have a section of daily tasks:

• Walk for 1 hour (or whatever exercise).

• Increase my fruit and vegetable intake.

• Only drink water – cut out all other drinks.

• Be aware and conscious of my eating habits: when I am eating for comfort or emotional reasons.

If you bought a meal plan or had someone help you come up with one, write here to follow your meal plan or to follow one aspect of it if that’s what you are choosing to do (e.g. like having a healthier breakfast for the first week before incorporating a healthier lunch in too). You can amend daily tasks as you progress in the direction you want.

If on your list of things to do you have the task of educating yourself on diet and nutrition so you can actually write a meal plan for yourself, you will have to do this before you can set any real diet goals for yourself (other than eat more fruit and vegetables a day if that’s one of them or only drinking water).

This is quite a general overview of a weight loss plan and it may seem quite daunting to do at first but it is WELL WORTH IT. It will help you become focused on what you really want. Just getting it typed up and on paper laid out properly will give you the mental boost you need to succeed.

If you have any questions about this article or how to write your plan, you can email me at kelly@eating-naturally.com and I will be happy to help you!

Weight Loss Goals Part 1: Creating A Positive Weight Loss Mindset

Weight Loss Goals Part 2: The 3 Beliefs You Need For Weight Loss Success

Previous Post: Cellulite Treatment: How To Eliminate Cellulite