Developing Mental Toughness For Permanent Weight Loss.

Losing weight and keeping it off is much more than eating right
and exercising hard. In order to lose weight and keep it off,
especially in today’s stressful society, you must be mentally
tough.

Every day we are surround with people and food temptations that
will try sabotage your effort to lose weight. This is why losing
weight is so difficult and depressing. There are so many diets
and exercise programs out there; however, none of them will ever
work for you not mentally ready to change your life.

If you have been unable to lose weight, chances are, you were
not mentally tough enough. Why believe me? Because, I am a
Doctor and a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist?
That is one good reason. But more importantly, I have been
there. I struggled with more own weight issues for years.
However, in 2002 I personal lost over 60 pounds and I have been
able to keep the weight of for over three years now. Tony
Robbins said,”If you want to succeed in any aspect of life, find
someone who has already succeeded in that area, and do what they
did to get there.” Here are some mental techniques I used which
ultimately helped me to finally lose weight and keep it office.
I am confident that is you apply they techniques, you to will
succeed in your quest to lose weight.

Write down your goals.

I know you have heard this over and over, and over. But did you
every actually do it? If you want to really change your life and
lose the weight, this time, write down your goals. In fact, lets
take it a litter further. I am sure this is not your first
attempt to lose weigh. I am sure you tried some other program or
“diet” before and for some reason it did not work. The first
thing I want to say is, “good job”. Not good job for failing in
the past, good job for trying again. This is a little off the
subject, and we will get into this more late. However, anyone
who has successful lost weight and kept it off failed on some
other program. The difference is, they never gave up. So, good
job on continuing your quest to lose weight. I know you can do
it.

Now back to your goals. I want you to write down why you failed
in your past attempts to lose weight. Did you lack time,
motivation, direction, what was it? Now write down all the
negative things about your life, which are related to your
weight. What will your life be like if you do not lose the
weight and keep living the way you are living. Are you missing
out truly enjoying life because of your weight? My kids wanted
me to play with them in the pool at their year-end little league
pool parties. Do you think I wanted all those parents to see big
old gut? No way! I let my kids down. They did not care that I
was fat. They just wanted to play with their dad in the pool. I
let my kids down and missed out on enjoying my kids. What about
you? If you keeping living the way you are living, what will you
miss out on?

Write down all the bad things that are associated with your
weight. Are you missing out on relationships? Are you worried
about your health? Are you worried about dying early? Do you
want to see your children get married? To be perfectly honest,
obesity is currently the second leading cause of preventable
death in the United States, just behind smoking. If you are
overweight, you have a very good chance of dying earlier than
you should. Write this stuff down. The goal here is to make your
self feel bad, real bad.

Do you remember when you were a school kid and the teacher gave
you a homework assignment that was due n a week? How many of you
ran home and finished the assignment on the first day? Ok, a few
of you probably did. However, if you were like me, I waited
until the last minute to do the assignment. Why? Why did wait
until the last minute? Because I associated more “pain” with the
process of doing the assignment than the “pleasure” I would get
from knowing I had finished it. That is, until the night (or
morning) before it is due. Now, the assignment is due in a few
hours and all I can think about is the “pains” that will come if
I do not get it done. I will fail, my parents will get mad at
me, I will get grounded and not be able to play with my friends.
So what do we do? We do the damn homework, every though it
causes us pain.

This might sound a little harsh, but the only reason you have
not lost weight is because you associate more “pain” with the
process of losing weight than the “pleasure” you will get with
losing weight. When you eat that dounut you are thing about how
good it pleasures your taste but instead of thinking that you
just added another 200 extra calories that you did not need
which will cause you to gain more weight, which will make
fatter, unattractive, more likely to have a cardiovascular
disease, which will cause you to die earlier, missing out on so
much. Harsh, but true.

Now write down three month goals, six months goals, and one year
goals. Be realistic. Think about losing two pounds a week as a
goal. Put these goals somewhere you can read on a daily basis.

Visualize your goals.

Everyday, especially when exercising, visualize the body you
want and the person you want to be. Picture the new you in your
mind. See your new body. Visualize what that person will be
like, how will losing all that weight change your life. How will
that person act? Now, be that person. Act as if you had already
reached your goals. When a situation comes up that might
adversely affect your weight loss program, such as blowing off
your exercise routine, or that tempting dounut at work, stop.
Visualize the person you’re trying to become. Now be that
person. What would that person do in this situation, now be that
person. “Hold an image of the life you want, and that image will
become fact.” Come up with a motivation phrase.

This is a continuation of above. In addition to visualizing your
goals, come up with a phrase that states what you are striving
for, and speak it out loud when doing your exercises. Some of
the phrases I used when I was losing my weight were, “Everyday I
am getting fitter, healthier, stronger.” If you say this over
and over, and you are not what you are speaking, your mind will
sense a mismatch and then have to adjust to make the connection.

Start the morning moving.

You will more benefit from getting up fifteen minutes earlier
and going for a brisk walk or light jog then you would get from
sleeping an extra fifteen minutes. When you are doing this
visualize you goals, and say your motivational phrase out load.
This is a fantastic way to start your day. You will be more
awake, more energized, and focused for the rest of the day.

Sign up for an event.

Studies have shown that about 50% of Americans that begin an
exercise program eventually quite. However, the study showed
that when the subjects had a goal of participating in an event,
a 5K run, a triathlon, a charity walk, improved compliance with
the exercise program, and only 20% of the subjects dropped out.
Having goals help. So, look for an event in your area. A 5K run
or a charity walk for breast cancer is great events to train
for. Instead of constantly thinking you are exercising just to
lose weight, you are training for the event that is a few months
away. This is what I did. I signed up for a short triathlon.
Since I was not going back out of it after signing up, it
motivated me to continue my exercise program. After I completed
my first triathlon, I set a new goal. I signed up for another
triathlon that was longer. I never got bore and my exercise
program never got stale. This was because I always had an event
goal. Also, do not think that you have to be in great shape
already to participate in the event. As you will see, there are
a lot of people simply walking these events. Find a partner, and
just do it.

Hire a wellness coach.

You hire a CPA to help you with your taxes. You hire an attorney
to help you with legal issues. You hire a real estate agent to
help you buy a house. But, what do most people do when they want
to lose weight? They buy a book and try to do it by themselves.
I already mentioned that obesity is a killer, and you already
know how difficult it is to lose weight, so hire a professional.
But what is a professional? Sure you can go down to your local
gym and hire a personal trainer, but what makes them a
professional? Just because someone may have played high school
football, does not mean they help you with losing weight.

Obesity is a disease, and you need to treat it as a disease. So
hire someone who can order blood test, work with you mentally on
changing your habits. Hire someone who can develop an exercise
and nutrition program specifically to your needs and abilities.
A wellness coach will be with you through the good and the bad.

You are the only person you can count on.

What? I tell you to hire a wellness coach, and then I tell you
that YOU are the only person you can count on? Hear me out.

I want to exercise, BUT I have no time. I did not want to eat
those potato chips, BUT there was nothing else to eat. People
who use a lot of “BUTS” usually have a big one.

The weight loss program I run at my office works. When my
patients come to my office, I can tell them what types of
exercises I want them to do for today’s session, and I can
review their nutrition and give them ideas on how they can do
better. However, when they leave my office it is up to them.
What is there to stop them from picking up a hamburger on the
way home? Nothing. Just themselves. This is why you need to not
just follow an exercise program, and not just try to follow the
latest fad diet out there. You need to focus on changing the bad
habits that caused you to gain weight in the first place and
replace them with new ones.

Be honest for a minute. You tried a weight loss program in the
past and it did not work, right? Did the program really fail, or
did you fail the program? Lets face it. If you develop diabetes
or have a heart attack because you are overweight, who are you
going to blame? Are you going to blame McDonalds, because they
did not tell you that a bacon double cheeseburger might not be
good for you? Are you going to blame your trainer, because they
did not make you exercise hard enough? Are you going to blame
your parents, because “it is in the genes”? Obesity runs in our
family. At some point you need to take responsibility for your
own health.

If you fail to lose weight it is because, more than likely, you
did not do what you were suppose to. However, the opposite is
also true. At my office I have seen my patients lose twenty,
fifty pounds or more. I have seen first hand how this can
totally change their life. I have seen their relationships
improve. I have seen them gain more self-confidence. I have seen
them do better at work and make more money. I have seen them
become a much more happy person. And, they thank me for it.
Everyday someone thanks me for helping him or her finally lose
weight. I am grateful for the thanks. I tell them, I gave you
the path and the knowledge on how to exercise and how to
understand nutrition, but you are the reason you lost weight. I
helped, but you did it. You are the only true person you can
count on.

It’s all about Attitude

If you have been trying unsuccessfully to lose weight for some
time, you might need to change your attitude. Take a minute and
think back over the past years. How did you approach the weight
loss program? Were you reluctant? Were you skeptical? Did you
reality think this was the one, the program that would finally
work, or did you have doubts and think that you would fail again?

“If you continue to think the way you’ve always thought, then
you will continue to get what you always got”.

If you think you will fail you will. If you know you will
succeed you will. Charles Swindoll said…

“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on
life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more
important than the past, than education, than money, than
circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other
people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance,
giftedness, or skill. It will make or break a company…a church…a
home. The remarkable thing is that we have a choice everyday
regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot
change our past…we cannot change the fact that people will act
in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only
thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is
our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me
and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you…we are in
charge of our Attitudes”.

That says it all. When I was losing weight, I read this daily.
When I did not feel like exercising I would read this. When I
weighed myself and thought about giving up because I did not
lose any weight, I read this. I now give it to all of my
patients on their first visit.

Never Give Up.

Never Give Up, Never, Never Give Up, Never Ever Give Up, Never
Give UP! That’s right, the secret key to losing weight is not a
new fad diet, it’s not a new medication, it’s not a gimmick
supplements, it is A STATE OF MIND!

Lets face it. You tried to lost weight in the past, and you
failed. So what! The key is what do you do now. Do you give up,
or do you start again. Anyone and everyone who has successfully
lost weight and kept it off had failed in the past. However, the
reason they were finally able to lose the weight, was because
they never gave up.

I know how hard and frustrating it can be, but never give up. If
you have a bad day and eat a bunch fatting junk, so what, forget
about it. Just do not give up, never.

Forget past mistakes. Forget failures. Forget everything except
what you’re going to do now and do it. Just start a new day and
never give up. If you tried to lose weight, and did not work,
try something different. JUST NEVER GIVE UP!

“Have you ever considered the cost of quitting? For real eye
opener…ask Thomas Edison…Steve Jobs…Michael Jordan…or
Sylvester Stalone. Ask them how much it would have cost them if
they had quit. What about you?”

1. Prev:Eat Out and Lose Weight — 25 Easy & Healthy Tips for Dining Out
2. Next:The Truth About Dieting and Weight Loss