I was recently talking to someone who told me, 'I have achieved so many important things in my life, but trying to lose weight is the most challenging thing I have ever faced, I know I should lose weight, I know how to, but I can't seem to stick to a healthy diet and exercise'. And this post is a more elaborate form of the advise I gave her. Every obese person knows he or she must lose weight to regain their health and improve energy level. No one wants to be obese and trapped in a body of fat life long. When trying to lose weight, it appears as a mind boggling challenge, where on one hand, you desperately want to lose weight, you are trying but temptations and old habits of grabbing or going for those high fat foods, sugary foods, and even binge eating seems unavoidable and you end up wondering, what are you doing, why is it so hard to lose weight.
There is more to dieting and exercising - the psychological aspect. We are guided by our conscious mind and the subconscious mind. Our conscious mind knows that it's unhealthy to be overweight or obese and tells us, we want to lose weight and have to lose weight and helps in making diet and exercise plans. We start off with good intent with the help of our conscious mind. But after a few days of dieting and exercising, there is a sense of boredom. When we see the foods that gave us joy and comfort like sugary, fatty and junk food, we become tempted. The craving is so overpowering and we grab for what we promised to stay away from, sabotaging our diet or weight loss plan. Sometimes we go for those foods, because the high sugars and fats are stress relievers, giving us comfort after we eat them. We seldom remind ourselves besides comfort, they are loaded with calories which get converted to fat. Although we seem to satisfy the craving at first, we end up feeling guilty and promise to go back on the diet and repeat the same cycle. Why does that happen? Besides the conscious mind that guides us, we are conditioned by our subconscious mind, where there is no sense of reality, but just information stored from the past habits. So if we were used to eating a lot of sugary and fatty foods or binge eating, that is what your subconscious mind will make you do, because it's ingrained in the subconscious mind, all the foods that you were habituated to. Any new decision that tries to alter that programming, will create an automatic shift towards what it was used to. There is a constant ongoing war between the conscious and subconscious mind. You get it right?
Now the most important thing is to get your conscious mind and subconscious mind to work in harmony. Both should want the same thing. You have to undo the programming of your subconscious mind, feeding it with new information and let it sink it. Before you go to bed, do this mental exercise. Tell yourself that you want to lose weight, tell yourself the target weight, imagine yourself eating healthy foods and mentally imagine avoiding all the foods that are 'bad' for you, imagine yourself as this thin person and wearing smaller size clothes. Visualize yourself as totally determined to lose weight, eating healthy, saying no to foods you want to stay away from. Do this mental exercise everyday at night before you sleep and also, when you wake up in the morning. Print weight loss 'notes and affirmations' in bold and stick it on your fridge on kitchen walls. Everyday, take a look at your old photos when you were thin and be determined to return to being thin. Stick before and after pictures of celebrities or people, on your fridge or kitchen wall who have lost weight. Go on the internet, read weight loss success stories every day. Make notes from they have shared that can work for you. You are feeding your subconscious mind with new information that will replace old habits. You should consciously make it a point to follow your diet and exercise. Slowly, but surely, your subconscious mind and your conscious mind will want the same thing - lose weight and work towards achieving your target.
If you are one of those people who think you can't do it alone, equip yourself mentally and emotionally with all what I shared, and join a weight loss program or slimming club where there are others along with you who are trying to lose weight. You will feel empowered in the presence of people working towards a common goal to lose weight. It also means you have to be ready to pay for the weight loss program, where you would be given healthy diet and exercise plan and your progress would be monitored and you will be extended a lot of support and help to lose weight. However it is definitely possible to lose weight on your own without having to spend any money. Whatever way you chose, be determined to lose weight. Please stay away from weight loss pills, teas and products that promise to help you lose weight, for they don't work and you lose your money.
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