FINDING YOUR WEIGHTLOSS MINDSET
How much of your weight loss success depends on your mindset and thoughts?
Well, as it turns out, quite a lot!
We have asked our Mind Coach, Andrea, to answer your questions about mindset and how if we can change our thoughts, will it help our journey?
How much of someone being successful on their weight loss journey is based on their mindset?
The success of your weight loss journey is really reliant on your mindset. The connection between your mind and your body is often really underestimated.
Although most of the solutions to weight loss are physical changes such as eating less and moving more, it is your mindset that will determine how successful you are and if you are able to maintain your weight loss. Changing your body position is great for your health - so get moving!
How can we improve our mindset and turn it to ‘weight loss mode’?
The first way to adjust your mindset to ‘weight loss mode’ is to look at your goals and what you want to achieve from your weight loss. Changing your mindset can sometimes be a simple as developing a new routine or structure to your day, to help break habits that are causing you to gain weight.
Secondly, and looking further into the psychology of our mind/body relationship, it is making connections of how food could be our ‘go to’ to replace loneliness, boredom, depression and stress etc. When we explore these emotions, we are able to look into the causes and how we might overcome these. Next time you reach for a snack, or something you don’t necessarily ‘need’ to eat, question how you are feeling – is this an emotional reaction or craving, do you really ‘need’ what you are about to eat?
If someone has tried weight loss programmes before and then regained the weight they have lost, how can they change their mindset to believing they can lose weight for good and they don’t need to continue to yo-yo diet?
If you have lost weight before, but it has been regained, then it is a simple question of reminding yourself that you are your own best expert. When you lost weight before, what worked for you and what didn’t? What caused you to regain the weight and can you combat this if you were to lose weight again?
Very often, we look at diets as having an end goal. We see the goal weight as the end of the line, make drastic changes we cannot maintain once the weight is lost and don’t look at how we can make weight loss sustainable as well as successful.
Although you will have the intentions that your weight loss will be permanent once you have reached your goals, once you have hit your target, it’s all too easy to find yourself slipping back into old patterns of behaviour and finding rewards, often foods, for our achievements gained during the programme.
In order to find a sustainable solution, we have to ensure whatever lifestyle changes that we make are realistic and maintainable long term.
Often, we see great weight losses in the first month of a programme, but then the weight loss can slow or even plateau. What advice do you have for someone who might be thinking of giving up when the lbs aren’t dropping off as quickly?
If weight loss slows or plateaus during your weight loss programme and you feel like giving up, it’s important to realise that any decision is yours to make but it also helps to look at the bigger picture and what you want to achieve on a weight loss journey.
When it comes to slowing or stopping weight loss, there are two routes you can take. Route one is where you stay on your weight loss programme, receive the support and encouragement you need to overcome this small stumbling block in the road. By staying on the programme, you can learn ways to adapt your approach to weight loss that matches your current situation. It also gives you time to find the reasons for your weight loss slowing down and finding ways to tackle it.
Route two is where you make the choice to leave your weight loss programme. If this becomes a realistic choice for you, try and reflect back on the reasons that you joined your weight loss programme in the first place. Why did you want to lose weight, and have you achieved that goal yet?
It is really important to remember when making a choice on which route to take, that you should not feel guilty about whatever decision you make.
Perhaps, before making the decision, we could turn to our support network and speak honestly with them, to ensure you are definitely making the right decision for you.
