“Everything popular is wrong.” –Oscar Wilde
Just because something is popular doesn’t mean it’s right, and dieting to lose weight is no exception. As humans we’ve been blessed with the ability to think critically. We can analyze what we’ve been doing and decide if we should continue the same way or make adjustments. When it comes to dieting the answer is clear: it doesn’t work long term.
We all know this, so why do people continue to try something that almost never works? Because they don’t know of a better way. As a professional weight loss coach who has done over 3,000 private sessions, I know there is a better way, but it requires you to open your mind and put aside all your weight loss beliefs for a moment.
I’m not going to tell you about what you need to do to lose weight, you already know that. It’s basically some combination of eating less/better, and moving more. The real secret to permanent weight begins and ends in the mind. The way that you think is the key to understanding your weight. I want to describe 3 common thought mistakes that sabotage real powerful results.
1. Relying on Willpower- The most important change in your thinking has to be your decision to not depend on your willpower
to do all the work. Simply, it isn’t up to the task. In order to create permanent change in your body you must begin to change what
food means to you. This has already happened to you in your life. Remember a time when you were a kid and all that mattered to
you was some toy. You were obsessed with it, but you changed
and chances are now that you could care less about that toy.
The toy is the same, but what it means to you changed. Imagine
this happening with some food that you’ve struggled with.
How much easier would it be lose weight?
2. Focusing on Losing- Everyone always says they want to lose weight. But the reality is that you don’t want to lose, you want to win. You want to win back your body, you want to win back the feelings
of excitement, energy, attractiveness, passion, sexiness, etc.
The emotion of losing will never match the emotion of winning.
When you start the weight loss process off excited about how
good it feels and realize that it’s going to keep getting better,
do you think it’d be easier for you to create your dream body?
3. All or Nothing- This is the most common success killer. Most diets rely on the underlying assumption that you need to stick to the plan 100%. The problem with this is that it’s impossible in the long term to eat this way 100% of the time. So, what happens? The dieter eats a cookie and then says to themselves “Oh, I blew it. It doesn’t matter what I eat now.” Imagine deciding that you wanted to transform your body, and right from the beginning knowing how much more you would enjoy your life, you realized that it felt better to eat lighter and more natural foods. You knew that sometimes you’d still overeat or eat sweets, but that this new body was so important and feels so good, that you always had this craving to return to eating lighter because it just felt better. Do you think if you began thinking this way that it’d be easier for you to change your body?
Understand that the days of dieting are coming to an end. Dieting equals depression. Most people have tried and failed so many times with diets that even as they begin a new diet, in the back of their mind they believe they’re going to fail. These thought patterns create feelings of frustration and hopelessness. But there is a
better way, and you can learn it by studying the people who ARE successful, the ones who were able to make a change and keep it. The people who quit dieting and finally realized that true
change happens from the inside out.