You must begin to think of yourself as becoming the person you want to be. – David Viscott
The Over-Indulgence Trap
In today’s day and age, it is very easy for us to over-indulge in the great pleasures of life. For many of us, this means food and lots of it. Food is more accessible today than ever before in recorded history. Coupled together with the stresses of daily life, it is easy to see how we tend to overeat at times, which can lead to weight management concerns and health issues. However, there are some very simple fundamental steps that one can take to gain control of one’s weight and health.
Exercise for Weight-loss
Exercise is no doubt one of the most critical components of effective weight management. It is something that we cannot take for granted. Yet, so many of us look for that quick fix that often comes in a bottle or pill. Exercise does not need to painful. Consistency is the key and moderation is the rule.
Here are some suggestions for exercising for weight-loss:
Aerobic Exercise
Aerobic exercise involves movement which can be a combination of swimming, walking, cycling or partaking in a sports activity on a regular basis. It is recommended that for effective weight-loss that we undertake aerobic activity 3 to 4 times per week.
Anaerobic Exercise
Anaerobic exercise involves training to build muscle. Whether you want to bulk-up or tone down, anaerobic exercise will assist with your weight-loss goals. This form of exercise should also be undertaken 3 to 4 times per week.
Create Schedule
Your exercise regime should be treated as an appointment that you have with yourself. Therefore, take some time to create a schedule for yourself where you will partake in regular exercise during scheduled times throughout the week. At no point should you break this schedule. By breaking it even once will dramatically increase the probability that you will neglect your exercise responsibilities in the future on a reoccurring basis.
Your Ideal Weight-loss Environment
Effective weight-loss comes down to building an effective environment around you that is supportive and complimentary to the weight-loss goals. Once your weight-loss environment has been set up, you will find that your levels of motivation will dramatically increase and you will be more effective at achieving your weight-loss goals and objectives.
Here are some suggestions for building an effective weight-loss environment:
Remodel Your Lifestyle
Immediately upon setting up your weight-loss goals, transform your environment in ways that will support your new objectives. Whether this means removing items and other temptations from your fridge and pantry, or changing the decor in your room so that it promotes more health and well-being — the changes you make are completely up to you. Just make sure that they are congruent and consistent with whom you seek to become once your weight-loss goals have been achieved.
Kick Old Habits Out the Door
Who you are right now, isn’t who you will become when you have achieved your weight-loss goals. Therefore, make sure to identify all the habits that are currently letting you down, and completely kick them out the door to allow room for your new and more empowering habits that will lead to more health and well-being.
Create a Strong Support Network
Throughout this weight-loss journey of yours, you will need and require the support of like-minded individuals who will motivate you along your path to health and well-being. This could be close friends, family, colleagues at work or online communities that will provide you with the help and support you need to achieve your weight-loss goals in rapid succession.
It is important here to also identify the people whom you consider could present challenges along your journey. These people may not directly sabotage your success but rather indirectly tempt you in the opposite direction. You might like to consider spending as little time as possible with these types of people for the duration of your journey.
Make a Public Commitment
Go out there and make a public commitment to everyone you know and state your weight-loss goals openly. By going out there and publicly informing every one of your objectives will provide you with the motivation you need to keep persisting through the tough times you may experience along your journey towards greater health and well-being.
Weight-loss Through Nutrition
Every weight-loss program out there will educate you about the importance of nutrition in achieving your weight-loss goals and objectives. However, as you will learn, it’s not only about what to eat, it is also about how to eat and how much to eat at one time.
Here are some suggestions for building an efficient and powerful nutritional program:
Eat Healthy Fats
Achieving weight-loss isn’t about avoiding fats, it is rather about eating healthy fats found in nuts and legumes. These good fats will assist your body in maintaining balance and well-being as you progress along your weight-loss journey.
Eat Small Meals Frequently
Eating small snacks 6 to 7 times per day is a lot more effective than eating 2 large meals. When people go on diets they tend to skip meals and eat infrequently. This is very dangerous and your body will react to these tactics in ways that will encourage binging and overeating. Eating small frequent meals will prevent you from occasional overeating and will tend not to shock your body into starvation mode.
Also, make sure to eat slowly. You only begin feeling full when the food you ingest reaches your stomach. However, this food will take a little time to get down there. Therefore by eating slowly, you allow the food time to reach your digestive tract which will prevent you from overeating.
Eat Plenty of Fiber
Fiber assists in the regularity of your bowel movements. Getting an adequate amount of fiber in your diet will assist in the digestion of your food and eventual weight-loss. Fiber is found in abundance in both fruits, vegetables, and cereals.
Eat Low Fat, Low-Calorie Foods
This pretty much speaks for itself. Get into the habit of reading food labels and pay attention to your fat and calorie count each and every day. If you maintain your fat intake and calorie count at manageable levels, you will be more effective in achieving your weight-loss goals.
Eat Breakfast Daily
Eating breakfast daily will prevent you from overeating during lunchtime. An energy breakfast comprising of vegetables will also improve your concentration levels and will help you get through the day. To achieve your weight-loss goals quickly, do not ever skip breakfast. However, please do not overeat, not even during breakfast time.
Drink Plenty of Water
Water is essential to life, and it is paramount to the ongoing success of your weight-loss program. Make sure to drink plenty of water throughout the day. Water that is at room temperature is highly recommended as it is most easily assimilated into the body. As a final note, drinking water throughout your day will tend to reduce your food cravings, however, as with everything please don’t overdo it. Drink regularly but in moderation.
Dietary Consistency Throughout the Year
No matter what birthdays, celebrations or holidays you have on your calendar, make sure to stick to your weight-loss program no matter what others are doing around you. It is so easy during these times to be tempted by the devil to take just one bite! Don’t do it. One bite will lead to a second bite, and then a third, and before you know it you have taken in more calories than you have been burning and you will be back at square one. Don’t be tempted by others, pay attention to your needs and focus on sticking with your daily weight-loss goals and objectives.
Weight-loss Actions
There are certain things that you can do each and every day that will keep you focused and centered on your weight-loss goals and objectives. These may seem like very small and insignificant actions, however by regularly partaking in these actions every day will very likely lead to accelerated weight-loss and improved health and well-being.
Here are some suggestions for weight-loss actions you can make on a daily basis:
Quiet Prayer, Meditation or Visualization
Science has shown us that biologically your brain cannot tell the difference between something that is real in the physical world or something that is only imagined in your mind. This, therefore, leads us to the assumption that the more you visualize your weight-loss success, the more you meditate on it and the more you pray about it, the faster you are likely to reach your weight-loss goals and objectives over time. These are very simple things that you can do on a daily basis, yet they can so easily be taken for granted. Do the little things every day that will make a big difference for your tomorrows.
Track Your Progress
Tracking your progress will provide you with motivation and incentive to keep keeping on even when the going gets tough. Do this by keeping a journal, by weighing yourself regularly, by taking photos of yourself, and by setting appropriate weekly goals and targets in response to your progress. However, be aware that the progress you make may be very little, you may even take a few steps back at times. Yet don’t allow this to discourage you. Just keep moving forward and recording your feelings and experiences as you make progress along your journey. Remember that you might not win every battle, but you will win the war!
Try Alternative Therapies
By having a regular massage or by partaking in a local yoga class will calm and center your body in ways that are hard to imagine if you have never allowed yourself to partake in these activities before. They will ease your stress and clear your mind, thusly providing you with a greater sense of well-being and confidence as you continue on your journey.
Finally, visit your local health store and purchase some herbs, vitamins or super greens that are designed to provide your body with the essential nutrients it needs for continued health and longevity. These also become very important when you are undertaking a weight-loss program; because as you exercise you will be perspiring many essential nutrients through your sweat glands. These nutrients need to be replenished in some shape or form in order to maintain your high levels of health and well-being. Please speak with your alternative health physician for further information.
The Mindset for Effective Weight-loss
Effective weight-loss has got as much to do with the mind as it does with the body. In fact, weight-loss first starts in the mind. If your mind is weak and isn’t able to deal with the challenges that confront it along its journey, then you will suffer the consequences of these decisions. You must work on your mindset each and every day so that it maintains its strength and longevity through the tough times that may lie ahead along your path to weight-loss success.
Here are some suggestions for creating an effective weight-loss mindset:
Focus on Solutions and Answers
Always focus on solutions and answers to the problems and challenges you face along your journey. See problems as opportunities to help you learn and grow from your experiences to further accelerate your progress towards your weight-loss goals and objectives. You are not simply just what you eat — you are also inexplicably what you think about most of the time. Keep this in mind and think of solutions to problems.
Get Educated
Read books, articles, and magazines about weight-loss, nutrition, exercise and more. Don’t just trust one source for all your knowledge and information. Look elsewhere, seek a differing opinion and experiment with your strategy to determine what works best for you long-term. When you are educated and you know what you are doing, you will never make excuses when you get off track.
Believe in Yourself
Self-belief is paramount to your weight-loss success. You must believe in yourself at a deeply profound level no matter what other people may say, do or think. If one of your colleagues tried losing weight and didn’t succeed, doesn’t mean that you will suffer the same fate. Believe in yourself and your abilities, believe in your state of mind and believe in your courage to keep keeping on despite the challenges and obstacles that you might face. Your success lies purely in your hands.
Cultivate Optimism
You are what you think. Therefore think optimistically about everything that you are doing no matter what images the world is reflecting back in your direction. No matter what happens maintain your optimism and move forward with a sense of purpose and passion to do whatever it takes to accomplish your weight-loss goals and objectives.
If You Seek to Lose Weight, Don’t Do This…
Weight-loss is just as much about what to do, as it is about what not to do. This section will provide you with some guidelines of what not to do when it comes losing weight.
Here are some things you should be wary of as you progress along your journey towards weight-loss success:
Don’t Skip Meals
This deserves a second mention: skipping meals will lead to negative consequences as your body will try to retaliate by fighting-off the feelings of starvation. Instead, eat small frequent meals throughout your day.
Don’t Compare Yourself to Others
Everyone’s body is different and they will move through the phases of weight-loss a little differently. What works for them may not work for you and vice-versa. Make sure to walk your own journey and yours alone. Educate yourself on what to do and then experiment, track your progress and adjust your weight-loss strategy accordingly.
Don’t Eat or Ingest the Following
- White sugar
- White bread
- Fast-foods
- Toxins including alcohol and cigarettes.
These will only slow down your progress and may even keep you where you are no matter how much of everything else you are doing that is required for weight-loss success.
Don’t Stress
Both physical and emotional stress alone has a tendency to put the body into a state of shock where it holds onto fat and other resources. It is also very easy to overeat during these times. This is exactly what you don’t need. Stress will rob you of your wellbeing and your health. Avoid stress at all costs through relaxation exercises, yoga, meditation, massage and other techniques described in this post.
Concluding Thoughts
You will no doubt achieve your weight-loss goals through consistent effort and repetition. Just keep your eyes peeled on your target and don’t ever lose hope or belief in yourself and your abilities. I hope also that this discussion will allow you to focus in on what is most important to achieve the weight-loss you are desiring to experience.
Time to Assimilate these Concepts
Did you gain value from this article? Is it important that you know and understand this topic? Would you like to optimize how you think about this topic? Would you like a method for applying these ideas to your life?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, then I’m confident you will gain tremendous value from using the accompanying IQ Matrix for coaching or self-coaching purposes. This mind map provides you with a quick visual overview of the article you just read. The branches, interlinking ideas, and images model how the brain thinks and processes information. It’s kind of like implanting a thought into your brain – an upgrade of sorts that optimizes how you think about these concepts and ideas. 🙂
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Gain More Knowledge…
Here are some additional links and resources that will help you learn more about this topic:
- Living Life Overweight: 10 Reasons Why You’re Not to Blame @ Zen Habits
- 5 Surprising Reasons You’re Not Losing Weight @ Health
- 7 Foods that Help You Shed Pounds @ Health
- 9 Tips to Squeeze Exercise into a Tight Schedule @ Scott H Young
- 15 Things Nobody Tells You About Losing Weight @ Health
- 16 Ways to Lose Weight Fast @ Health
- 80 Awesome Weight-loss Tips @ Zen Habits
- How to Lose Weight: 40 Fast and Easy Tips @ Reader’s Digest
- Top 5 Reasons Why Weight-loss is Temporary @ Lifehack
- Simplest Weight Loss Site Ever @ Mashable
- The Science of Weight Loss @ Scientific America
- What’s the Best Way to Lose Weight? @ Time
