9 Ways to Mentally Prepare for Weight Loss

Before you get to enjoy the physical changes that come with healthy weight loss, you first must undergo a mental makeover that helps you break your old bad habits. The key to beginning your transformation is thinking of it properly — you want a true lifestyle change instead of a lose-weight-quick crash diet. Think of your goal as weight control and remember that you want to stick to your new healthy diet for the foreseeable future.

source

“Framing your diet as weight control makes it long-term. It’s not as dramatic or drastic a push to get yourself to a certain weight at any cost,” Brian Quebbemann, MD, founder of the NEW (Nutrition, Exercise, Wellness) Program in Newport Beach, Calif., says. If you “diet” and set unrealistic expectations, you’ll probably regain any weight lost as soon as you go off the plan. But if you make attainable lifestyle changes, the lost pounds will stay away.

Before you jump into your new lifestyle, prep properly by following this mental checklist for success.

State Your Weight Loss Goals

Having the right mind-set starts with knowing why you want to lose weight. It could be as simple as wanting to look and feel better — dragging around 30 extra pounds makes you tired and lethargic and uncomfortable in your clothes. Or you may have specific health needs, such as lowering your risk for diabetes or reducing high blood pressure. Getting psyched up about the very real rewards of weight loss builds motivation that makes it easier to stick to your meal plan and exercise routine, explains Heather Bauer, RD, author of Bread Is the Devil: Win the Weight Loss Battle by Taking Control of Your Diet Demons.

Hire a Dietitian

When you’re ready to lose weight for life, make an appointment to see a registered dietitian, advises Jackie Newgent, RD, a New York City-based nutritionist, author of Big Green Cookbook, and a healthy-cooking instructor at the Institute of Culinary Education. “You can follow any diet you want and lose weight,” she says, “but it might not be the best diet for you or for your health.”

Working with a dietitian will enable you to find a weight-loss program that best fits your lifestyle, your dietary needs, and any medical conditions you have and one that includes healthy foods you like and will want to eat. “The reason most people fall off the wagon is because they’ve chosen a plan that’s not for them,” Newgent says. A dietitian can also help you get mentally ready for the challenge ahead.

If you’re worried about the cost, check with your insurance company. Some plans provide reimbursement for nutrition counseling.

Ink Your Weight Loss Meal Plan

Once you’ve decided on a weight-loss plan, map out all the steps needed to implement it. At the beginning of each week, create a meal plan for your diet that you’ll use as your guide for grocery shopping, cooking, eating out, and avoiding unplanned indulgences. “Having that plan helps you reach for the right foods,” Newgent says. If you know you’ll be meeting friends for dinner at a restaurant, Bauer suggests going online to look at the menu. Plan what you will order to avoid being tempted when you get there. Pick two healthy entrees, she says, so that if the restaurant is out of your first choice, you’re not stuck.

source

Invest in a Personal Trainer

Exercise is an essential part of any weight-loss program, says Scott White, a personal trainer in Scottsdale, Ariz. But when most people think about weight loss, they think about what foods they will eat rather than what exercises they will do — and skipping exercise could be sabotaging their dietary efforts. Working with a trainer — or just setting up a free consultation through your gym — will help you map out an exercise routine that you enjoy and find ways to fit it into your busy schedule, White says. At the beginning of each week, mark every workout session in your calendar, just as you would a hairdresser or dentist appointment — you’re more likely to stick to your plan when you see it in black and white.

Prepare to Log Your Food and Fitness Activities

Whether you use an online tool, a mobile app, or simple pen and paper (maybe this is the excuse you’ve been waiting for to get that iPad!), logging your diet and exercise activity is key to weight-loss success. Whichever format you choose, promise yourself to religiously outline and track every aspect of your weight loss process, from every bite you take to every rep in your exercise routine. If you’re faithful about recording what you eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks, you’ll see patterns and routines emerge. You can analyze them to find solutions to the problems that have derailed your previous efforts to lose weight, Bauer says.

Set a Realistic Timetable for Weight Loss

The more realistic you are about your weight-loss goals, the more likely you are to reach them. Remember that you’re developing a lifelong strategy, so don’t set unattainable time limits — forget the concept of dropping 10 pounds in 10 days. And while you might need to ultimately lose 50 pounds, that goal can be overwhelming at first, Quebbemann says. A better mind-set is to focus on losing 1 to 2 pounds a week, and maintaining that consistent rate of weight loss over weeks if not months.

Approach exercise goals the same way. If you haven’t exercised for a while, starting off running a marathon would be a huge mistake — if you’re out of shape, even running a mile on your first day could backfire. Start small: Decide that you’ll walk for 15 to 30 minutes five times a week, and then ramp up your schedule as you make measurable progress.

source

Believe in Yourself

You may have failed with weight loss in the past, but that doesn’t mean you’re going to fail now. Sure, there will be days ahead when you’ll eat more than you should or skip a planned workout, but it’s essential to stay positive and move forward with your plan. Realize that your weight-loss goals will take time to achieve, but believe that you can go the distance one milestone at a time, Newgent suggests. Even losing 5 pounds is good for your health and can give you the impetus to work toward the next 5-pound drop. Recognize that weight loss rarely occurs in a straight line, and if you overeat one day, don’t berate yourself — just get back on your program at the very next meal.

Pick Motivating Rewards

After breaking your weight-loss goals into attainable increments, decide on a small reward you’ll give yourself for reaching each one, Quebbemann suggests. No, not a cupcake from your favorite bakery — don’t repeat old patterns by making it a food reward. Instead, choose other types of favorite treats, such as getting a relaxing massage or pedicure, going to a concert, or buying a new fashion accessory that helps you break away from your “fat clothes.” Write your rewards down as part of your master plan, just as you do your diet and exercise routine, Newgent says.

Create a Weight Loss Support Network

Everything is easier when you have the support and encouragement of family and friends, and that includes embarking on a new weight-loss lifestyle. You don’t have to announce your diet to the world, but you should confide in those closest to you, like your lunch group at work. Tell them why you’re trying to eat healthy and how they can help you stay on track, Bauer says. If you let them know how much reaching your weight-loss goals means to you, they’ll want to do what they can to help. And if you have a friend who is trying to lose weight too, make a pact to text each other at crucial times during the day, and you’ll both stay on track.

Source

8 Ways to Think Thin

Is your mindset keeping you fat? Here's how a new attitude can help you think yourself thin.

source

Motivation to lose weight often hits an all-time high when the first buds of spring pop out, signaling that bathing suit season is not far behind. And while there's no getting around the need to exercise and eat healthier, long-term weight loss starts in your head. Experts say that having the right attitude can help you think yourself thin.

If you want to succeed at weight loss, you need to "cut the mental fat, and that will lead to cutting the waistline fat," says Pamela Peeke, MD, author of Fit to Live. "Look at the patterns and habits in your life that you are dragging around with you that get in the way of success."

Everyone has his or her own excuses. When trying to improve their lifestyle and diet, most people do fine until something happens -- whether it's work pressure, family issues, or something else. Whatever your personal issue, the pattern needs to change if you want to be successful.

"I want to empower people to identify these patterns, deal with the real issues, so they can move on and be able to succeed at improving their health," says Peeke.

• Dieting doesn't mean you can’t snack.

To Think Yourself Thin, 

Have Patience

One major mental block to weight loss is wanting too much, too fast. Blame it on our instant-gratification society, with its instant messaging, PDAs, and digital cameras: Weight loss is too slow to satisfy most dieters.

"Losers want immediate results. … Even though it took them years to gain weight, once they decide to lose weight, they have no patience with the recommended 1-2 pounds per week," says Cynthia Sass, MS, RD, a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association.

source

But you'll get the best results when you lose weight slowly. Sass reminds her clients that when they lose weight too quickly, they're often losing usually water or lean tissue, not fat.

"When you lose lean tissue, metabolism slows down, making it even harder to lose weight," she adds.

Think Thin: 8 Strategies

Get that overweight mentality out of your head and start thinking like a thin person with these eight strategies:

1. Picture Yourself Thin.

If you want to be thin, picture yourself thin. Visualize your future self, six months to a year down the road, and think of how good you'll look and feel without the extra pounds. Dig up old photographs of your thinner self and put them in a place as a reminder of what you are working toward. Ask yourself what you did back then that you could incorporate into your lifestyle today. And, advises Peeke, think about activities you would like to do but can’t because of your weight.

"To break old habits, you need to see yourself in a positive light," Peeke says.

2. Have Realistic 

Expectations.

When doctors ask their patients how much they want to weigh, the number is often one that is realistically attainable. Peeke has her patients identify a realistic weight range, not a single number.

"I ask them to look ahead 12 months, and would they be happier being 12 or 24 pounds thinner?" she says "It only amounts to 1-2 pounds per month, which is totally doable, sustainable and manageable in the context of career and family." She suggests reevaluating your weight goal after six months.

3. Set Small Goals.

Make a list of smaller goals that will help you achieve your weight loss goals.These mini-goals should be things that will improve your lifestyle without wreaking havoc in your life, such as:

• Eating more fruits and vegetables every day.
• Getting some kind of physical activity for at least 30 minutes a day.
• Drinking alcohol only on the weekends.
• Eating low-fat popcorn instead of chips,
• Ordering a side salad instead of french fries.
• Being able to walk up a flight of stairs without gasping for breath.

"We all know that change is hard and it is especially difficult if you try to make too many changes, so start small and gradually make lifestyle improvements," suggests Sass.

4. Get Support.

We all need support, especially during the tough times. Find a friend, family member or support group you can connect with on a regular basis. Studies show people who are connected with others, whether it's in person or online, do better than dieters who try to go it alone.

source

5. Create a Detailed 

Action Plan.

Sass suggests that each night, you plan your healthy meals and fitness for the next day. Planning ahead is 80% of the battle. If you're equipped with a detailed plan, results will follow.

"Schedule your fitness like you would an appointment," Sass says. "Pack up dried fruits, veggies or meal replacement bars so you won’t be tempted to eat the wrong kinds of foods."

Make your health a priority by building such steps into your life, and ultimately these healthy behaviors will become a routine part of your life.

6. Reward Yourself.

Give yourself a pat on the back with a trip to the movies, a manicure, or whatever will help you feel good about your accomplishments (other than food rewards).

"Reward yourself after you have met one of your mini-goals or lost 5 pounds or a few inches around your waist, so you recognize your hard work and celebrate the steps you are taking to be healthier," Peeke says.

7. Ditch Old Habits.

Old habits die hard, but you can't continue to do things the way you used to if you want to succeed at weight loss.

"Slowly but surely, try to identify where you are engaging in behaviors that lead to weight gain and turn them around with little steps that you can easily handle without feeling deprived," says Sass.

source

For example, if you are an evening couch potato, start by changing your snack from a bag of cookies or chips to a piece of fruit. The next night, try having just a calorie-free drink. Eventually, you can start doing exercises while you watch television.

Another way to get started ditching your bad habits: Get rid of the tempting, empty-calorie foods in your kitchen and replace them with healthier options.

8. Keep Track.

Weigh in regularly and keep journals detailing what you eat, how much you exercise, your emotions, and your weight and measurements. Studies show that keeping track of this information helps promote positive behaviors and minimize the unhealthy ones. Simply knowing that you're tracking your food intake could help you resist that piece of cake!

"Journals are a form of accountability … that help reveal which strategies are working" says Peeke. "When you are accountable, you are less likely to have food disassociations, or be 'asleep at the meal.'"

Source

Article Sources

SOURCES: Cynthia Sass, RD, MPH, spokesperson, American Dietetic Association. Pamela Peeke, MD, author,Fit to Live; nutrition and fitness correspondent, Discovery Health channel.

© 2007 WebMD, Inc. All rights reserved.

3 Mindset Shifts That Help Weight Loss

In a recent Facebook thread about weight loss that I was following, one commenter wrote that if she could write a diet book, she’d call it “Eat Less” and then leave all the pages blank. Drop the mic, call it a day, solve our obesity mess with a two-word prescription.

Most of us who have read anything about diets, obesity, and weight loss would nod in agreement. We have too much food, too much sugar, too many processed foods, and too many choices. And the reality is that we could likely engineer a one-size-fits-most diet that would push everybody back to healthy weights. Example: Eggs and berries for breakfast, grilled chicken salad with nuts for lunch, and fish with vegetables and avocado for dinner might get us there if we followed that plan every day (adjusting for variables like vegetarian options and allergies). Most of us who have read anything about diets, obesity and weight loss would also agree that it’s nowhere near that easy.

The diet dilemma has everything to with food. And nothing to do with food.

It really has more to do with adjusting our mindset so that healthy choices feel right—and don’t feel like deprivation, hard work or punishment.

I’ve spent most of my career writing about health, and I’ve spent most of my life in a bleep-off relationship with the scale. I’ve had quite a few lows (almost ballooning to 300 pounds while writing diet books, getting a D in sixth-grade gym class), and I’ve also had some successes. (For what it’s worth, our individual definitions of weight-loss success need to include not just pounds, but also things like bodily satisfaction, life satisfaction, numbers like blood pressure and achievement of other goals not associated with pounds.)

We all have the ability to change our mindsets—not with a tire-squealing hard left, but by simply drifting into a new lane of thinking. These 3 switches will help you start:

Reverse the leadership model. The protocol for people who want to lose weight typically comes in two forms. You have the people who seclude themselves, privately trying to swim upstream against all of the forces that will make them gain weight. And you have the follow-the-leader model, in which the would-be dieter listens to the plan/advice/program of the trainer, the doctor, the nutritionist, the author, the infomercial-machine-seller: the person who, by degree or some other definition, knows more about the subject than anybody else. There’s nothing inherently wrong with either model, because either of them can work.

The glitch, however, comes when the follower grows tired of following. And when one grows tired of following, one consumes three pieces of Oreo pie. It’s not that the experts don’t know what they’re doing, because most of the many I’ve worked with and interviewed in my career do. It’s just that we dieters, though most don’t even know it, need a more balanced mix of following and leading. We need to harness some of the power and control back from the people who are telling us what to do. We need to lead, even if we don’t look like we should.

Leadership can come in many forms, whether it’s being the person to arrange the neighborhood walking group, or the person who prepares the family meal and makes kale chips instead of buying chocolate chips, or the person who organizes a work team to run a 5K together. The last couple years, I’ve organized weekly workouts with friends and neighbors. I’m the worst athlete in the bunch, so at first glance, the question would be, Why is blubber boy in charge? Exactly zero percent of my friends have ever given me any inclination that’s what they felt. Instead, the dynamics of the group workout are that we all push and pull each other, no matter our athletic abilities. I know I’m not as good as the others, but I also know that these workouts don’t happen unless I kickstart them.

Dieters can redefine the roles we’re supposed to take, and that’s what drives changes in the way we think and act. This is where sustained energy comes from—what we deliver to others, we get in return.

Steer the fear. In the weight-loss world, fear is almost as bad of a word as pudding. We fear the scale. We fear the doctor. We fear shopping for clothes. We fear the camera. We fear being embarrassed. The more we fear, the more we retreat—and the harder it is to climb out of whatever destructive habits we have.

As someone who once was told I had child-bearing hips, I know that the fear is real, and I know it’s not easy to squash. But instead of letting fear steer us, we need to steer the fear.

Plenty of scholarly and popular writings have addressed the issue of goal-setting, though there is some debate about whether we should set dream-big goals or more attainable goals. My take: Every year, you should set at least one physical and mental challenge that scares you just enough to help you make good choices—because those choices are a means to reaching that goal. What is “just enough”? It’s that spot right in between “of course I can do this” and “no way in the world can I do this.” For me, it was taking on the challenge of trying to complete an Ironman in 2013 (2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike, 26.2-mile run in a 17-hour time limit). I’ve found that the canyon in the middle of those two extremes is where the growth lies. Maybe it’s not fear in the traditional sense, but that bubbling angst of uncertainty feels different from and healthier than the kind of fear that dieters tend to have. (Tell us about your new challenge with the hashtag #TIMEtosteerthefear.)

Crank the voltage. As someone who has finished last in a race (maybe two, but who’s counting?), I do subscribe to the turtle-inspired mantra of slow and steady. When it comes to weight loss, that mindset will win the race. The choices we make over time, not one day or one hour, dictate the way that our bodies will look, feel and act.

I do think it’s a mistake to think that slow-and-steady is always the answer. Especially when it comes to exercise, we need high-intensity, those short periods of working as hard as we can. Why? Because that kind of work—the kind where you’re so immersed in the activity because it’s fun and intense—is what feels good, what feels enjoyable, what feels in the moment and what gives us the post-activity high that helps us make healthy decisions, especially when it comes to food choices.

My friend and sports psychologist Doug Newburg, PhD, has taught me a lot about the concept of feel, because he has studied how it works in hundreds of elite performers. It’s different than feelings or emotions. Exercise, like eating, shouldn’t feel like a chore. For it to truly work over the long term, it has to feel more like recess than like detention. Going all in—whether it’s running, dancing, playing tennis or playing tag with your kids—excites you enough to take you out of your own head, and that’s what makes you want to do it again and again. The byproduct of playing hard is that, without thinking, you find what you were after in the first place.

Source

http://time.com/3502683/weight-loss-mindset/