Weight Loss Mental Mistakes to Avoid

Mindset is a major factor for successful weight loss. By reprogramming your mental thinking, you can stay motivated and focused on your weight loss goals.  Here are some mental pitfalls that should be addressed when you start your weight loss journey.

Self-Talk

Being overweight can often trigger thoughts of self-loathing. However, disparaging yourself does not help you lose weight. On the contrary, it is actually easier to stay focused and motivated on your weight loss goals when you appreciate yourself. It may seem like a paradox, but when you appreciate your body, healthy eating and exercise habits become easier.

You can help create a new positive mindset by monitoring your self-talk. One way to do this is with a journal and focus on your feelings about your body. By being vigilant about what you're saying to yourself, you can start seeing how negative thoughts are untrue and unhelpful, and start substituting them with beliefs that support your goals. By believing you are capable and worthy of a healthy body, losing weight will be that much easier.

Neglecting Rewards

In addition to negative self-talk, one of the other things that many people do to sabotage their weight loss efforts is neglect to reward themselves regularly. By receiving feedback and positive reinforcement, you help yourself stay excited and involved in meeting your weight loss goals.

Start by breaking larger goals into smaller chunks, and reward yourself every time you meet a milestone. Rewards do not need to be expensive, and can include things like time with friends, reading a good book, or spending time on a hobby that you enjoy.

Emotional Eating

One of the major stumbling blocks for losing weight is the problem of emotional eating. Many people use food as medication. By eating, they relieve or soothe their negative thoughts and unpleasant emotions. When you uncover your emotional eating triggers, you can recognize when you grab food in times of emotional upset. By being more aware of when and why you eat, you can stop yourself from emotional eating more often.

A great way to do this is to have some substitute activities lined up whenever you feel tempted to reach for food. Exercise, for example, is a great way to shift your mood. If you can distract yourself with exercise, you will feel better and remove much of the need for emotional eating. If exercise isn't an option, another effective technique is to distract yourself for 5 minutes, and check your mood again. Set a timer if you need to. In many cases, you will have distracted yourself enough to release the immediate need to eat.

 

You can increase your chances for weight loss success by realizing that your weight loss journey is a mental and emotional one as much as a physical one. Losing weight requires harmony with the mental, emotional, and physical aspects of you. When you remove some of the common stumbling blocks, and focus on creating a positive mindset, your weight loss success will increase dramatically.

 

 

 

15 Great Ways to Lose Weight Fast

Want to lose weight fast? It's easy to say good bye to 10 pounds of unwanted fat with these easy diet tips. Just pay attention to what you eat and be sure to have good tasting, fresh and healthy foods (including snacks), fill up on vegetables and keep your taste buds happy with fruit.

Follow these simple guidelines to lose your first 10 pounds, last 10 pounds or give your weight loss program a boost when it seems to have stuttered to a halt. This is a balanced and flexible plan that you can use for as long as you want.

 

1. Keep a note of everything that you eat and drink.

Record the item, the calories, and the number of portions you ate.  You will find that being more aware of what you are eating helps you to plan healthy meals and snacks.  No more "guesstimating".  Now, you will know.

 

 

2. Halve your intake of all pure or added fats.

This means using half as much butter or spread on your bread, toast, muffins and potatoes; half the usual amount of mayonnaise or sauce on your salad; and half the oil in the frypan every time.

 

3. Limit treats containing sugar to three times per week.

This includes chocolate, ice cream, desserts, cake, pastries, cookies, etc.  Pay attention to your portion size.  You will discover that a portion according to you may differ from the nutrition facts of the package.

 

4. Include a lower fat source of protein at most meals: fish, beans, cottage cheese, or low fat yogurt. Have eggs, or nuts instead.  Be mindful of the cholesterol of animal protein while investigating fat content.

 

 

5. Plan at least one lunch and dinner every week without meat or cheese.

Build those meals around whole grains, vegetables and beans to increase fiber and reduce fat.

 

6. Reduce the fat content in your milk products.

If you are currently drinking whole milk, reduce to 2% fat. From 2% reduce to 1%. Maybe you can go totally off dairy, all together by switching to Soy, Rice, or Almond milk.  Remember, Cows milk is for calf's just as cat milk is for kittens. Choose lower fat cheese and yogurt. When you buy yogurt, also check that it does not contain sugar.

7. Have at least three servings of fruit every day.

This can be for dessert or snacks. Choose fruit that is in season.  If it's out of season; there's no telling how it was kept "fresh". 

8. Drink water instead of sodas, juices, milky drinks or alcohol.

Avoid diet soda - the sweet taste only encourages you to crave sugar. Room temperature water with a slice of lemon can be very refreshing in the morning.

9. Include at least two servings of vegetables at lunch and dinner.

If you are getting hungry, have more.  Hunger is simply your body asking for nutrients; not to be stuffed full.  You know ... like 15 minutes after eating Chinese food - your hungry again.  It's because there wasn't any nutrients in it. 

10. Eat slowly.

The body is slow to register when you are full and it is easy to eat too much if you are racing through your meals.

11. Grated carrot makes a great snack.

You will find that a grated carrot is much more filling than a whole carrot; strange but true.

12. Use whole grains wherever possible.

The fiber will give you a fuller feeling and also help your digestion.  But I'm talking about 'real' whole grains.  So try something else beside 'rice and wheat'.  Try something different like: Farro, Spelt, Emmer , Einkorn, Kamut, Quinoa, or Amaranth.

 

 

13. Choose food that you can chew.

Again this will increase your fiber intake, and the act of chewing will make you feel more satisfied too. This means eating fruit instead of drinking juice. If you have soup, make sure it is chunky.

14. Plan your meals and snacks ahead of time.

Plan your shopping too - make a list of what you need and stick to it. If you just grab something when you are feeling hungry, you will probably choose high calorie food.

                                                           

15. Try not to eat while watching TV.

That includes snacks as well as meals. Studies have proved that we eat larger portions in front of the TV, probably because we are much less aware of what we are eating. Don't eat on auto pilot.

How To Tell If A Health Product Is “For Real” Or Not

“Take our Weight Loss Secret Elixer

- made famous by Hollywood - 

and you will be Skinny!”

Oh LOOK!  It's ANOTHER miracle weight loss remedy.  

I know.  Sometimes it's hard to tell if a product is “for real” or not. Here are a few pointers that should help you choose effective nutritional products instead of hyped up trash.

1) The first factor you'll wish to look at is scientific research on a product. Ask the company or salesperson for scientific research on their product.

First of all, if there hasn’t been any scientific studies done on the effectiveness of the product, be very suspicious.

If there are scientific studies that show good results from using the product, you should check a very important element in the scientific studies: were they performed using the exact product that you are considering buying?

For example, a salesman may give you a study showing excellent results with “Aloe Vera”. However, the study was most likely performed using fresh aloe vera, not the particular aloe-derived product that you are considering buying. This is very important, because there are many things that a company can do or not do (even without knowing it) in between harvesting the plant and you buying the product that could render the product useless.

2) That brings us to the second factor to consider, which is processing. How is the product processed? Is it processed in a way that ensures that when you purchase it, it still has all of the nutrients that it should?

It can often be difficult to determine if a product is processed properly. So you'll often have to make your decision based on other factors. For example, if you have scientific studies showing that the product gives good results off the shelf, it is apparently processed correctly.

3) Another thing to consider is the reputation of the company you are dealing with. This is a tough one to figure out, though.  Surely, if you do a Google search for just about any major company that sells products, you'll find a disgruntled customer bashing them.  Or, even saying something that may very well be true … just not the whole story.

You know the saying:  There are 3 sides to every story – Yours, Mine, and the Truth.

Here are a few ways to get accurate information on the company – the best way is through the Better business Bureau. The better business bureau processes customer complaints and creates reports on each company based on the complaints received.

The BBB analyzes each complaint, distinguishes invalid complaints from complaints that the company has resolved (or made a good effort to resolve). So the better business bureau is a good source for accurate information on the business practices of companies.

Another place to get customer feedback on companies is Alexa. They allow customers to write reviews on websites. Keep in mind, you will find a lot of people just bashing other companies on Alexa, so try to be selective in which reviews to place much trust in.

Another way to check out a product is to do “testimonial checks”. Most companies will have product testimonials which they use to promote their product. However, many of these are fabricated testimonials. So, just ask to speak with several references. It's harder to fabricate real people!

Just as many companies use testimonials, many use medical references, generally doctors who recommend the product. It's not a bad idea to check and see if the doctors are actually practicing MD's who use and recommend the product, or if they are just employees of the company who are paid to recommend it. Of course, just because they are paid to recommend it doesn't mean it's not a good product, but in many eyes, it lessens the weight of their recommendation.