1. Not Involving your Mind.

Any change in lifestyle requires a change in our brains.  Right now your neural pathways are set-up for your present way of life.  Making a change requires new connections and pathways to be made within the brain. Not involving your mind in the process of weight loss is like trying to speak Portuguese with no prior exposure to the language.  You just don’t have the neural connections to make it happen yet.  Just as we must first train our minds in order to understand Portuguese, we must help our minds to understand the changes involved in losing weight. Helping your mind to make these new connections will significantly improve your likelihood of success in the long term.  Keep reading and you will learn a few things you can do right now to start training your brain. 
If you are interested in more information about the brain and change I suggest you check out the book: “The Brain that Changes Itself”.  It is not directly related to weight loss but it gives a detailed understanding of how the brain works.  

2. Negative Approach.

The mere thought of weight loss and diet tend to cause a great deal of dread. If you have tried several times to lose weight you know this is not something people generally look forward to with pleasurable anticipation!  We associate weight loss with words like discipline, control, strictness and worst of all deprivation!  It’s no wonder it is so hard to succeed when we are approaching it with this attitude!  Making a change in how you think about weight loss will change your actions and behaviors.  It all starts on the mental plane and no program, no matter how good it might be, will be effective if you are not in the right frame of mind first.

If you think and believe it is going to be a hard struggle every step of the way it absolutely will be. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy!

I can tell you from personal as well as professional experience that releasing weight does not have to be this dreadful battle.  The best thing you can do for yourself is start working on this negative mental framework Let’s change that self-fulfilling prophecy to one we actually want to come true! Tap into the power of your mind and mind-body connection.  It can be a natural and easy process if you will allow it to be. 

 
Here are a few tips and suggestions to get you started. 

1. First you must be aware of or notice the negative thoughts and beliefs you hold around releasing weight and your ability to succeed.  I suggest carrying a small notebook where you can record them as they come up. 

2. Once you are aware of your negative patterns practice letting them go.  Don’t get caught up in their story; don’t get hooked into thinking and brooding more about it.  Simply tell yourself to stop.  Say to yourself: “I forgive myself for thinking…” You may practice just stopping for awhile or you may be ready to mover right onto the next step. 

3. Reprogramming or replacing the negative thought.  We want to put something positive in its place.  The more you repeat it and commit to it the more you will begin to believe and live it.  This involves rewording or reframing the thought to a more positive statement, image or idea.
   

Negative thought:  “It is so hard for me to loose weight, I can’t follow a diet”

Stop: (notice the thought) and “I forgive myself for believing that it is hard for me and I can’t follow a diet”

Replace:

-      “It is natural and easy for me to eat healthily and release weight.”

-      “ It is enjoyable for me to eat healthily and my body releases weight naturally”

It will very likely feel forced and false at first.  Work on finding words that really feel powerful to you and practice as much as you can.  We easily believe negative things that we hear about ourselves even if they are not true; this same mechanism works with affirmation.  If you stick with it you will train your brain to really think that way.

3.  Dieting

 Most people who diet quit after they have reached their goal weight (if they get that far!) and return to old habits.  This leads to the yo-yo syndrome that so many people struggle with.  Losing and gaining over and over again is actually shown to be worse for your health than being moderately over weight. 

We talked earlier about all the negative words we associate with dieting.  Dieting is all about obsessing and worrying about food, making sure we don’t lose control.  It sets us up for feeling deprived and fed up.  This is a recipe for failure if ever there was one.  Without question healthy eating and lifestyle are imperative . Again this is about changing your mental approach or attitude.  Educate yourself about healthy diet.  Make changes that are realistic and maintainable over a lifetime. 

Stop the deprivation thinking, “I can’t have that…I shouldn’t have that”.  You “Can” have whatever you want, you “Choose” not to at this moment.  I hope you can see and feel the difference in these two ways of thinking.  Can’t versus choose.  Controlled versus empowered.  This means that occasionally you may choose to indulge in something previously labeled as forbidden, but it need not derail you.  You choose it, enjoy it and keep living healthy as a general rule.  Simply changing your language can make it much easier to make good, healthy choices most of the time.  That is what developing a healthy relationship with food is all about.  It is not all or nothing but…that old word “balance” that makes it work.