When you have a goal of losing weight, your mindset is everything. When you start losing weight, you might be so fixated on the number on the scale, that you don’t consider negative emotional and mental changes and any long term damage on your body. Dieters can loose muscle mass, slow their metabolism, and some can even cause damage to their hearts. By fixing your mindset to one that focuses more on healthy lifestyle changes and not restrictions, you are setting yourself up for success.
Here are some things to know about developing the right kind of weight loss mindset..
DITCH THE DIET MINDSET
When you have a diet mindset, you are focusing on your diet alone without considering your long term health. It is not just eating a specific diet, restricting your calories, burning calories, cutting out carbs, ditching entire food groups that leads to healthy permanent weight loss. Many dieters try to eat as little as possible in order to lose as much weight as they can, as fast as possible. These extremes can create an obsession with counting calories, burning fat, and trying to “win” at weight loss. It can lead to unhealthy habits, starvation, over-exercising, muscle loss, a slower metabolism, a weakened immune system, heart issues, and so much more. This diet mindset can cause food addictions and compulsive thoughts around food.
A BETTER SOLUTION
Instead of developing this extreme diet mindset, take it slow, one habit at a time. By making gradual and consistent changes to improve one habit at a time your body will become rebalanced and release weight. Do you drink a lot of soda? Replace it with sparkling water. Is your diet high in refined sugar? Try more natural ways to get in sugar, such as lower sugar fresh fruit like berries. Do you snack throughout the day? Try adding more protein, fat, and fiber to your meals, and you won’t feel the need for this grazing because your blood sugar can become more stable. This allows food freedom rather than a life of deprivation and rules surrounding food.
You want to think about weight loss in the big picture perspective. Sure, you could follow a strict diet and lose weight quickly, but will you keep it off? Probably not. It is a journey and not a destination. Your healthy body weight is about more than a number on a scale. When you create a healthy lifestyle that nourishes you, your new weight is maintainable. By making changes slowly, you are able to tell what your healthy foods are and what behaviors serve your self care. A dieting mindset always leads to a difficult yo-yo cycle of losing and then gaining back the weight plus more.
It will take time for your body to adapt to this new lifestyle. Think of it this way: it took time to put the weight on your body. Therefore, it will take time to take the weight off. So, don’t go on a diet and obsess over your weight. Simply begin to eat healthier and move around every day and your weight will naturally regulate to a healthy level. Your brain, hormones, sleep, mood, and taste buds will also start to change for the positive as your body rebalances.
Dieting is not a natural way for you to live. Therefore, get rid of the “diet mindset” and begin to permanently change the way you eat. Before you know it, you will trade in your overweight and unhealthy body for a stronger, fitter and healthier you. Your new healthy habits will make it possible to maintain the new upgraded, healthier version of you.