Your weight loss mindset is everything to achieving your goal and keeping it up over the long term. For years. For a lifetime, if that’s how long you want to keep it up. It may seem like a physical thing, but it really is all in your mind, just like practically everything else. I know that sounds schmaltzy, cheesy, and worthy of an eye-roll, but it’s true.
Building a Positive Weight Loss Mindset
Your starting point is this. And this statement is not meant to boost you up and make you feel like a unique shining unicorn snowflake. It’s the truth. You can ask any doctor.
Your body is perfect. Seriously.
Your body is absolutely perfect. Based on what you’re eating, how much you’re exercising, and the other factors affecting it, it has become the absolute perfect shape and function to reflect them. If that shape isn’t what you want it to be, it’s not because your body isn’t perfect, it’s because you’re not giving it the right fuel or tools to be perfect in a different way.
If you change your lifestyle habits, your body will change with them. The key is to change them in a way that you will be able to keep up over time, and that will bring on the results you want to achieve. That requires a positive weight loss mindset.
Hating on Yourself Doesn’t Work
Negativity and hate toward yourself isn’t a long-term motivator. While it may push you to a certain action at some point, it can also harm better actions that you’d be able to keep up more effectively over time. This is why I always tell my clients that it’s important to understand why they’re setting their goals and to adjust those reasons when they just won’t serve them in the way they want.
There is a big difference between the goal “I want to get in shape because I’m a disgusting flabby mess” and “I want to get in shape because it will feel great to be toned with a healthier BMI”.
This is why I always recommend setting a goal based on a future vision instead of based on your current self. It helps you to naturally focus on a positive weight loss mindset. After all, if you think about where you want to be, you’re paying attention to the good stuff and how you need to live your life to get that way. If you focus on what you don’t like about right now, you are looking at what makes you unhappy and aren’t paying attention to where you want to be.
Creating a Powerful Goal with a Positive Weight Loss Mindset
Here are my steps to setting a powerful goal using a positive weight loss mindset.
- Look ahead and visualize where you want to be.
- List the advantages and benefits of what you’re visualizing.
- Learn (don’t assume) about the changes you need to make to live the life of that version of yourself you’re visualizing.
- Start working those changes into your everyday life, one at a time, until each step feels normal and natural. Then, add another.
- Don’t rush. You have your whole life to work with this positive weight loss mindset. It’s not a race. It’s a lifestyle.