| Weight Loss success is more often than not | | | | your Achilles' heel is, develop a list of |
| Mind over Body. Here are some strategies that | | | | strategies to deal with the issue when it |
| will help you overcome the sense of | | | | rises. Arm your mind: if you understand where |
| deprivation that often accompanies dieting. | | | | they are coming from, it is easier to be less |
| To increase the | | | | defensive and submissive. Arm your fridge: |
| success rate of any weight management | | | | should you be swayed by these difficult |
| program, we have to shift our thinking of | | | | moments to binge, have a whole fridge of |
| "weight loss" as something that suggests | | | | allowable snacks so that even though you |
| deprivation, hunger or loss to something that | | | | indulge in 2, 3 items, there is no harm done. |
| suggests growth, development, and gain. | | | | |
| Weight loss is not loss, but the building of | | | | Plan your day ahead. If you must have a snack |
| a lean, powerful body. Losing weight is not | | | | before bedtime, make sure that you have |
| losing at all, but gaining a newly | | | | low-fat, high protein snacks accessible in |
| reconfigured body. The best way to do this is | | | | the fridge so that you do not opt for what's |
| to enlist the power of your mind. Visualize | | | | left over from dinner instead. There is less |
| yourself at your ideal weight. Focus on your | | | | likelihood that you will sabotage your weight |
| slim and slender body, your well-shaped legs. | | | | loss program if you have nutritious and |
| Imagine yourself living a powerful, dynamic | | | | allowable snacks available at all times. |
| life. Would you be bingeing yourself to | | | | |
| death? Make this positive visualization of | | | | Eat 5-6 smaller meals a day (3 meals plus 2 |
| your ideal self a daily practice until you | | | | snacks). Make your body think "abundance", |
| find it actually easy to see yourself as | | | | and it will expend more calories. Do not skip |
| lean, strong and beautiful. Next time you | | | | meals as this makes you body go into |
| feel like wolfing down a whole chocolate | | | | "starvation mode" and your body will respond |
| cake, shift your mind to that slender body | | | | to that by shutting down your metabolism. |
| and well-shaped legs.'Hunger" is another word | | | | |
| we need to reclaim. We think that we have to | | | | Measure yourself before you start your weight |
| be hungry to be slim. That is not so at all. | | | | loss program and once a week after that. |
| We just need to be able to differentiate | | | | Measure your upper arms, chest, waist, hips, |
| between real hunger and emotional hunger. | | | | upper thighs, ankles, wrist. Record your |
| Take time out and ask yourself, "Am I really | | | | measurements faithfully. If you are following |
| hungry?" Think twice before putting anything | | | | your weight loss program carefully, you will |
| in your mouth. If you decide that you are | | | | notice a change in measurements very quickly. |
| indeed hungry, then eat, but make sure that | | | | You will lose in inches; your clothes will |
| what you eat honors your body. Make sure it | | | | feel looser. This will give your mind |
| is nutritious food and not empty calories. If | | | | positive re-inforcement. Do not weigh |
| you decide the sense of deprivation you are | | | | yourself everyday. Your weight is not really |
| feeling is emotional hunger, then the | | | | an accurate measure of your progress because |
| searching has to go deeper. Are you lonely? | | | | weight is dependent on time of day and |
| Angry? Stifled? Resentful? What is bothering | | | | hormonal fluctuations. |
| you? Decide if you will take this anger out | | | | |
| on your body or take the more courageous | | | | Exercise 4-5 times a week. Work towards doing |
| route: have it out and come to terms with it. | | | | 30 minutes of cardio (walking, running, |
| Speak out what it is that makes you mad, sad, | | | | cycling) and 15 minutes of weight training. |
| uneasy. Don't be afraid to dig. The best | | | | Use visualization to make exercise an active |
| things have come from the darkest pits of the | | | | part of the New Beanutiful You. |
| earth. | | | | |
| | | | Reward yourself in ways other than food. Buy |
| Know yourself! Know when your most vulnerable | | | | a new dress. Go see a movie. Take a weekend |
| moments are. Know when you are most | | | | trip. Go dancing. Enjoy the new lifestyle you |
| susceptible to being sabotaged by your | | | | have created for yourself. See it not as a |
| partner's sneer, your mother's disbelief, | | | | short term goal; instead focus on making the |
| your sister's insistence that you don't have | | | | changes lifelong habits. You will forever be |
| it in you. (Families are so supportive, | | | | eating well, exercising well, taking care of |
| aren't they?) Understand that your decision | | | | yourself so that you will look great, feel |
| to change challenges their status quo and | | | | great, be great!Be proud of yourself: you |
| families are known to resist change (Don't | | | | have trained your Body to be an extension of |
| rock the boat!). Once you understand where | | | | the Mind! |