When it comes to losing weight, diet and exercise are often prescribed as the “keys” to success. But are they really enough? What if the biggest obstacle to your weight loss success was more insidious than you might expect?
A recent survey in the Consumer Reports National Research Center asked psychologists what people’s #1 obstacle with weight loss was. The result?
Emotions were far and away the most popular response.
Yes, your emotions – your very own brain — are working against you to sabotage your weight loss goals. So if you’ve ever felt guilty after eating a meal… or felt too “down” to exercise… or even found yourself in a trance in front of your refrigerator as you gobbled down that chocolate bar…
… then you’ve experienced emotions standing in the way of your weight loss.
Fortunately, I’m here to tell you that you DON’T have to be a victim anymore. You can conquer your emotions–put your brain back in check, take control and achieve your weight loss and health goals. Best part? The solutions are much simpler than you might think.
Here’s how to seize back control from your renegade emotions:
Emotional Mastery Technique #1: Get Conscious
The first step in conquering our emotions is to simply practice being aware of them. That little voice inside our heads is usually not a very friendly one, and we often just let it berate us. We let it tell us we’re fat, we’re a failure, we’re a loser — that we’ll never lose weight.
And we keep letting it talk down to us like that, day in and day out! How are we supposed to succeed in losing weight -– let alone ANYTHING in our lives — if we let our inner voice take control and make us think we’re a failure all the time?
Of course, we can’t. This kind of negative self-talk is GUARANTEED to affect your mood, your drive, and your willingness to actually try to lose weight and be health. The truth is.. if you want to lose weight successfully, you’ve got to learn how to change that voice’s narrative.
The Solution: Rewrite Your Inner Voice’s Script
The first step in this process is to simply start pulling yourself away from the inner voice. Acknowledge that this voice is simply your brain making sense of the environment around it – NOT your actual voice. With this knowledge, you can start to separate yourself from the chatter inside of your mind, and start to pay attention to what it’s actually saying.
Here’s how to do it…
Sit down in a quiet area, and just listen to your inner voice. Hear what it is saying to you, what beliefs it’s trying to push on you. And listen closely to the language it’s using. Also, pay careful attention to the emotions the voice is bringing up in you.
Is the voice mean? Hurtful? Is it uplifting or is it holding you back and putting you in a negative place? If this voice were an actual friend of yours, would you listen to it? Would you let them talk to you like they are now?
If not, then now is the time to put a stop to it. When you hear this inner voice saying negative things and dragging you down, interrupt the voice and call it out for what it really is: lies. Tell the voice, “These are lies. I am not listening to you.”
And replace those thoughts with a positive mantra – a good one can simply be “I am good.”
More on that in a second…
Emotional Mastery Technique #2: Acceptance
So now that you’ve started to get a handle on your inner voice, the next step is to cultivate personal acceptance. What I mean is simply – I can tell you to tell yourself “I am good.” – and that will help. But it’s one thing for you to say it – it’s another thing entirely for you to actually BELIEVE it.
And that’s our next step – cultivating belief in yourself and boosting your self-esteem. If we don’t actually believe in ourselves, our abilities, and don’t accept ourselves for who we are – then we will NEVER succeed in losing weight – let alone anything else.
The Solution: Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends On It
You may not be in love with yourself now. You may look in the mirror and be very unhappy with what you see. Maybe you’re carrying a few extra pounds – or even a lot of extra pounds. And while yes, being overweight is a symptom of a stronger, underlying health condition that needs to be addressed.
You’re NEVER going to be able to solve that underlying problem unless you accept yourself FIRST. So when you’re approaching your weight loss, the inner dialogue isn’t “I’m worthless, I’m hideous, this is terrible, I hate myself.”
This language does NOT serve you, and will only hurt you and prevent you from losing weight.
There are 3 steps:
- Recognize you have a health challenge you need to address.
- Accept this is where you are right now – and that it’s okay – because you are going to take control and fix it.
- Take action to address the problem.
Finally, an important mantra (from a great book, Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends On It), is simply just telling yourself every day “I love myself. I love myself. I love myself.” You may not believe it now, but eventually, it will become true for you.
Emotional Mastery Technique #3: Reframing Mistakes
We all falter in our goals. No one is perfect, No one is a robot. Everyone has made mistakes in their journey toward getting the lean, toned body they want. But what differentiates the people who ACTUALLY succeed, versus those that crash and burn? I’ll tell you.
It’s their attitude, their reactions, their BELIEFS about mistakes they make.
Look: if you allow your inner critic to convince you that every mistake you make means you’re worthless… or that you’re a failure… or that it’s not even worth continuing – you will NOT succeed! Instead…
The Solution: Turn Mistakes Into Opportunities
A simple reframe is in store: Mistakes should be thought of simply as opportunities to learn. If you make a mistake on your journey to better health, it is not the end of the world. Mistakes are SEPARATE from your self worth. A mistake does NOT affect your value as a person. So ACCEPT that mistakes happen, notice WHY they happen – without judgment – and move on.
This Is Just The First Step In Achieving Your Weight Loss Goals. Taking control of your emotions and self-talk is a phenomenal first step in achieving weight loss success. Without your control, all the exercise and dieting in the world WON’T work.
Yet when you regain control… all the strategies you use to lose weight are AMPLIFIED and work way more effectively. So let me share something very special with you that’s happening this month.
It’s called “For Women Only: The Weight Loss Solution”. It’s a FREE online event designed specifically for women who want to lose weight. Register For The Weight Loss Solution Here.
It’s hosted by my good friend Neely Quinn and the team at PaleoHacks.com. They’ve gathered over 35 of the top weight loss experts in the world to show you EXACTLY how to finally lose the weight you want – and get the body you desire.
In this event, you’ll learn everything from:
- How to identify and overcome emotional eating
- What to eat (and which foods to avoid)
- How to balance and take control of your hormones
- How to heal digestion, thyroid, and autoimmune conditions that are sabotaging your weight loss naturally
- How to “cheat” and still lose weight
- How to exercise (and more importantly, how NOT to exercise)
- And, of course, a LOT more that I can’t fit in this article.
Burn Ab Fat Effectively 