The Mental Blocks To Overcome For Successful Weight Loss And Wellness

Tip 1: Think Before You Eat

One of the main reasons that diets fail is because people approach weight loss the wrong way. Work hard at setting small, realistic goals instead of big, sweeping ones.   If you enter into dieting by thinking it’s all or nothing, you’re more likely to fail and ultimately fall off the wagon.

Small decisions and exchanges are what ultimate lead to weight loss.  Making changes day by day, not looking too far ahead and celebrating small victories make a huge difference in tackling this lifelong commitment to better health and wellness.

Tip 2: Recognizing Your Mental Blocks

The biggest mental obstacle dieters face is giving up on themselves. Many people who need to lose weight lack the confidence needed to success, and don’t believe they really can do it.  However, once they change their way of thinking and find a plan and routine they can stick with, they realize they can have long-term success!

Individuals who begin a weight-loss plan for the wrong reasons are usually not as successful as those who are doing it for the right reasons – better health, wellness and personal accomplishment.  Slow and steady wins the weight-loss race, and if you can find and stay on a program that works for your lifestyle, you can achieve amazing results.

Tip 3:  Finding a Healthy Mindset

Trying to lose weight before making the permanent lifestyle changes necessary to accomplish my goals will never work.  When you make the decision to get serious about weight loss, you will realize that working towards a healthier lifestyle is not only beneficial for your body, but for your mind and emotional state, as well.

The trigger that makes you realize you don’t lose weight through a diet, but through a lifestyle change, is different for everyone. Drastic dieting can be a vicious cycle that leaves people angry, depressed, frustrated, and finally just giving up. But if you learn a healthy way to approach weight loss, both mentally and physically, you can ultimately find success.

Overcoming The Mental Obstacles Affecting Weight Loss

Defeating Boredom

Boredom is an issue for many of us, and can cause us to give up on healthy eating and fitness goals before we even start. Whether you’re bored with the types of healthy foods you’re eating, or you find that your workouts aren’t your cup of tea, you may not be able to sustain anything long enough to see weight loss results. Boredom can cause the need to escape with food and increase snacking, specifically with unhealthy yet exciting foods that are high in fat and carbs. This leads to creating yet another one of these mental obstacles.

While boredom often triggers the desire to snack—but remember, it doesn’t necessarily have to be unhealthy foods. If you find yourself bored and about to binge, make it something interesting and healthy.

In addition, be sure to switch up your exercise style. Try alternating between running, weight training, or yoga just to keep things interesting. Changing up your workouts will also help you strengthen different muscles to increase your overall results and avoid weight loss plateaus.

“Afraid” Of Being Hungry While Dieting

You don’t have to drastically reduce your food intake to lose weight. In fact, you’re better off not depriving yourself or you might end up binging a few weeks into a weight-loss program.

The best way to feel full and lose weight is to fill up on a healthy combination of whole grains, fruits and vegetables, and lean protein.  While carbs will give you energy, you may experience a “crash” soon after because you don’t have any protein and fiber to slow down digestion. In this case, keep non-starchy veggies on hand, like broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, and squash, and add spices to make them more delicious and interesting. Not only are they filled with loads of nutrition, including vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients, the fiber and water will help fill you up.

Stop Believing Healthy Food Doesn’t Taste Good

Nutritious food doesn’t need to taste dull, plain or flavorless.  Do some reading and research in order to learn how healthy cooking can include experimenting with some new recipes.  You don’t need to deep-fry foods, or load them up with salt or sugar. As you discover new recipes and try new things, you’ll find healthy foods that you enjoy – even ones that don’t seem appealing right now

Worrying It’s Too Expensive To Lose Weight

You may like the benefits of an organic diet, but it’s not essential for good health or weight loss.  When embarking on a healthy eating plan, try to buy what is in-season, and remember that frozen vegetables and fruit are usually as nutritious as fresh produce. Those who are on a budget may want to incorporate more vegetarian- and plant-based protein while limiting more expensive items, like meat, and add in healthy salads whenever possible.

Losing weight can be cost-effective if you want it to be, and simple things such as not going out to dinner as often and drinking less wine will assist in keeping your new lifestyle affordable.  Even more importantly, staying fit and healthy can save you money in the long run, as you will avoid many health-related expenses down the road!

Believing Exercise Is Too Hard

If you consider your workout a chore, then you’re doing the wrong workout. Finding a fun activity is really crucial if you want to stick with it long enough to lose the weight and keep it off.

Simply experiment with other types of workouts until you find a good fit.  You don’t need to hit a gym or become a runner to get in a good cardio workout.  Things such as dance classes, martial arts, cycling, hiking, kick-boxing or yoga are all great options!

Feeling Like You Don’t Have Enough Time

It may be easier to order takeout or hit a restaurant than it is to make something healthy from scratch, but cooking healthy meals doesn’t have to take up all of your free time.   Salads can be your ‘main course’ and don’t even require any cooking at all.

A great suggestion is to take time over the weekend to plan out your meals for the following week.  Stock up on ingredients, and chop up some veggies and protein so you’ll always have healthy options on hand.

It’s also important to make time for working out.  Scheduling a time in your day like you would any important meeting or appointment can help you do that.  If you’re really short on time, make sure you’re getting the most out of your workout by choosing one that is designed to yield major results quickly.

Lacking Overall Diet Motivation

Maybe you aren’t even motivated to try to lose weight, or you have hit a plateau and feel the loss of motivation because you’ve stopped seeing results. If you feel lazy or unmotivated to lose weight, you’re unlikely to get up and work out, or eat well-balanced meals.  Successful weight maintenance is strongly associated with personal motivation and the ability to enact coping strategies to combat the risk factors of gaining weight, such as binge eating due to stress.

While support from friends or family can help you find motivation, but ultimately lies within yourself. Working on creating specific and attainable goals, which are more focused and likely to be achieved because they are tailored to your specific lifestyle.

Conquering Your Fear Of Failure

If you’ve tried to lose weight in the past and failed, there is no need to beat yourself up for it.  Reviewing your habits and thinking about what went right, and try not to make any harsh judgments.  Sometimes it’s a matter of finding the right eating and exercise routine that will give you the successful results that you couldn’t achieve in the past.

The goal is to eventually have the mental clarity and motivation that enables you to stop feeling guilty, and instead focus on moving forward!

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As you can see from the above, mental obstacles are made to be overcome!  So add these solutions to your weight-loss toolbox and watch those pounds drop off– but most of all, don’t be hard on your body OR your mind!