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