Believe it, and you can achieve it. Attitude is altitude. Your attitude is everything. These are common mantras bandied about by inspiration gurus and self-help professionals, and they have frequently been shown to have a definite positive impact for many people.
A Positive Attitude is Crucial for Weight Loss Success
But can a positive attitude be the cornerstone for weight loss success? Many health and fitness professionals believe it is not only helpful, but critical in achieving weight loss and maintaining a healthy body weight.
A Negative Attitude is Weight Loss Sabotage
The thought process goes like this. Negative thinking can lead to self-defeating behaviors. This gives you little excuses to cheat on your diet, skip a workout session, and care little in the short term about your long term weight loss efforts. Over time this can lead to weight gain instead of weight loss, an individual then feels frustrated, and self-esteem drops. This leads to more negative attitudes, which then create a self-fulfilling and endless cycle of weight loss failure.
Setting Yourself Up for Weight Loss Success
Donald Hensrud, M.D., is a frequent spokesperson for the Mayo Clinic, and he believes that mentally setting yourself up for success in your weight loss efforts is vitally important. That is because staying positive will help you through the stumbles and falls you will definitely make in your weight loss experience. No one is perfect, so those fried food dinners and ice cream desserts are going to happen.
But positivity and the right mental attitude can get you over those speed bumps and back on track towards your weight loss goals. Did you know that major studies have shown low self-esteem and a negative self image can rob you of energy, give you a feeling of powerlessness, can actually cause depression and contribute to a lack of motivation?
Negativity even causes a significant negative physiological affect to take place in your body, and this can actually contribute to weight gain and other negative physical characteristics.
However, having a positive attitude means being realistic as well. To achieve your weight loss goals, set achievable hallmarks. Reward yourself when you hit significant levels of weight loss, keep a daily journal for both your positive and negative thoughts regarding your weight loss, and make a conscience effort every day to transform the way you think.
Celebrate Even the Smallest Weight Loss Successes.
You should also give yourself a mental pat on the back for even small efforts. If you drink coffee today without sugar, or pass on that second slice of pizza, congratulate yourself out loud. By reaffirming positive behavior and keeping a positive attitude, you will achieve your weight loss goals, and possibly quicker than you ever thought possible.
Why Focusing on Getting Healthy, Rather Than Losing Weight, Will Help You in the Long Run
With the US weight loss market providing somewhere between $60 and $70 million in revenue each year, losing weight is big business. This is one of the reasons why all the diet fads, fitness gurus and latest miracle cures talk about losing weight, rather than achieving and maintaining health. But when people focus on losing weight rather than getting healthy, they often times meet with frustration and ineffectiveness, and it is usually not even their fault.
When an exercise regimen is based on the wrong premise, it is bound to fail. And as long as failure is guaranteed, weight loss companies can stay in business. But when you focus on reaching a healthy fitness level first, you will find that weight loss and fat loss take care of themselves.
When weight loss is the primary goal, people tend to eat less. But actually, Americans and other modern-day human beings around the world should actually eat more frequently. The problem is that the typical US diet includes two or three meals a day, with massive portions. Getting healthy includes eating five or six times a day, with anywhere from 300 to 500 calories per meal on average.
When attempting to lose weight, eating less frequently leads to binge eating, and also causes your body to store fat. This is because your system has gone into starvation mode. The cornerstone of many weight loss systems is eating less, and this directly leads to the frustrated dieter gaining more fat, and in many times even more weight.
But when you focus on healthy living, which includes a sensible and nutritious diet, less sedentary activities and moderate physical exertion, your body will immediately move toward its fittest state. This will instantly cause a loss in weight if you are overweight, and will even allow dangerously thin individuals to reach a healthier overall fitness level.
Begin with 30 minutes of moderate to intense physical activity a day, and make sure you are walking at least 10,000 steps a day as well. Spread 2,000 to 2,500 calories out over 5 to 6 meals and snacks spread during the course of your day. Limit salt, refined sugar and flour, eat more fruits and vegetables, and pack a meal as opposed to eating out at lunchtime. And consult a doctor before taking on any physical fitness regime.
These are simple and inexpensive steps which help you focus on getting healthy rather than losing weight, and they help move your body to its most natural fitness level.
