You can have the best meal plan or exercise regime in the world, but without developing the right mindset for weight-loss, it can be very difficult to lose weight - even harder to keep it off for good!
But developing the right mindset so that you can lose weight without dieting is entirely possible!
What's more, once you've learnt the skills and techniques that are critical to your success, you don't need to relearn them, because they simply become new habits and routines.
Here are 5 of the most important elements to consider when working on developing a healthy mindset on your weight-loss journey...
1. Ask yourself the 5 year rule!
The golden rule for permanent weight-loss is that everything you do in order to lose weight need to be sustainable.
It’s very important that you feel happy to keep doing what you are doing for a very long time if you want to lose the weight for good this time.
A great way to test whether or not something is going to be sustainable in the long-term is to ask yourself The 5 Year Rule…
“Would I be happy to keep doing this habit for the next 5 years?”
For example, would you be happy to not eat any carbs for the next 5 years???
If not, what would you be happy to do?
What about cutting down your portion of carbs by 10% for the next 5 years instead?
Does that feel more do-able? Do you feel like you could stick to it for 5 years??
Having a plan that feels easy means you’ll be able to stick with it for long enough for big changes and progress to start to show!
2. Willpower is like a battery…
Think of your willpower and motivation like a battery that has a limited capacity and needs to be charged back up ever so often...
The more you depend on your willpower and motivation to carry out a difficult task on your weight-loss journey, such as a rigourous exercise regime, or continually resisting high levels of temptation, the quicker you are going to run out of battery and return to your previous eating habits. (This is completely normal and it happens to everyone!)
Instead of developing a weight-loss plan that relies on feeling very motivated to carry it out or using a lot of your willpower, aim to focus on small changes in your environment that can make healthier choices easier, and less-healthy choices more difficult.
For example, moving high-calorie treats out of sight in the kitchen, rather than keeping them within sight on your kitchen table.
3. WHY and HOW you eat are more important than WHAT you eat.
Eating a single bar of chocolate or a single packet of crisps will not cause you to gain weight.
But eating a bar of chocolate or packet of crisps every day because it’s become a habit or an outlet for your stress will almost certainly cause you to gain weight.
Learning the psychology behind our eating decisions helps us to understand why we eat the way thatwe do and what happens when a craving strikes so we can manage it more easily.
Developing a tool-kit of coping mechanisms that help us to manage big, uncomfortable emotions can help us to feel better and more relaxed in any scenario, without always depending on food and snacks to help us through it.
4. What you resist persists!
When we tell ourselves that we can’t have something, that it’s off-limits, we tend to think about that food and desire that food
more instead of less.
This is because we activate...
The Scarcity Mechanism
The Scarcity Mechanism is a primal mechanism within our brains from back when we were hunters and gathers that was designed to help us seek out foods that we perceived to be starting to run out - starting to become scarce.
When we were hunters and gatherers this worked very well as it helped us to move our attention more to the foods that were low in supply, and this helped us to avoid any deficiencies or medical conditions casued by the nutrients that were provided by that food.
The problem is, fast-forward thousands of years to this day and age and the scarcity mechanism is still as present as ever...
When we go on a diet and tell ourselves that something (like sugar) is no longer available, that it's off-limits, we are actually activating our own Scarcity Mechanism!
This leads us to start to think about sugar more, to start noticing it around us more and this all leads to our food cravings getting even stronger!
Instead of cutting a food out entirely (and activating your scarcity mechanism), try reducing how much you have of it, or combining a smaller portion of it with a lower-calorie food to help you feel fuller for longer whilst also enjoying your tasty treat!
5. Having a bad day does not ruin your progress!
It can feel really tempting on a weight-loss journey to feel like you are either ‘on-plan’ or ‘off-plan’.
If you eat a high-calorie meal or have an evening of over-eating, it can feel like you’ve ruined everything and you can feel like giving up, but this is NOT the case!
Creating a weight-loss plan that sticks, means INCLUDING moments of higher-calorie intake and knowing that, not only are they ok, but that they are a really important part of a sustainable plan!
Without them, you would be much less likely to stick to your healthy habits the rest of the time and find a happy balance between lower-calorie, higher-nutrient choices, and higher-calorie, lower-nutrient food choices.
If you'd like to find out how to develop a great mindset for successful weight-lossthat lasts that doesn't depend on willpower or motivation, get in touch!
Right now I'm offering a free 1-to-1 weight-loss strategy session for comfort-eaters, stress-eaters and late night snackers who know that their eating habits are holdingthem back from reaching their weight-loss goals.
To book your free weight-loss strategy session with me, Kate, head to the link below to book a time and date that works for you, or send me a private message on facebook.
See you there!
Kate
NuWay Health Coaching