Change Your Thoughts to Win the Weight-Loss Game
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If permanent weight loss were as simple as eating less and moving more, you wouldn’t be reading this article—you’d be off somewhere enjoying your fit, trim self without a thought in your head about the difficulties of weight loss.
Optimistic enough to put in an honest effort and see what happens. They don't fill their heads with self-defeating thoughts and negative prophecies that keep them from doing their best.
Stay focused on what they can do instead of fretting about what they can’t do.
Patient enough to take things one decision (and one day) at a time, instead of expecting instant results and losing motivation when those results don't come.
See mistakes and problems as learning opportunities instead of being demoralized by them.
How do you know if you have a fatitude problem? Here are three very common patterns that may indicate you have a fatitude problem that needs help stat!
Symptom #1 of a Fatitude Problem: The Drama Queen/King Syndrome
Do you tend to panic every time you have a "bad eating" day? Does going over your calorie goal or missing an exercise session make you feel guilty, as if you’ve done something morally wrong? Does eating something on your forbidden list trigger that negative voice in your head that says you’re too stupid, weak, or messed up to resist a temptation? When you see a number you don’t like on your scale, do you feel like nothing you do is ever going to make a difference, so you might as well give up now and start stuffing yourself with your favorite comfort food? This, my friend, is all Fatitude!
The Winning Attitude: If you never have problems, you’ll never have any successes. You’re in the business of changing your lifestyle, and finding solutions that work for you will take a lot of trial and error. Your problem areas and setbacks can become valuable opportunities—if you let them. So ditch the drama and the negative self-talk, and replace it with a little open-minded curiosity. What was going on when this problem happened (in your environment and in your mind)? How is that different from what goes on when you don’t have the problem? What about your environment (or your thinking) can you change to make it easier to avoid this problem next time?
Symptom #2 of a Fatitude Problem: The All-or-Nothing Game
Do you frequently find yourself thinking that, since you’ve already “blown your diet" for today, you might as well keep on eating and start over tomorrow (or next week or next month)? Is it hard to get yourself to exercise because it takes so much time and effort to burn such a relatively few calories? Do you find yourself going overboard with severe calorie reductions and excessive exercise just to speed things up? Do you feel unmotivated when you think about how far you have to go to get to your goal weight and how long it’s going to take you? Sounds like a Fatitude problem to me!
The Winning Attitude: You create success by doing the best you can with the individual decision or task that’s right in front of you at this moment. Nothing else really matters. All you can ever do is the best you can with what’s in front of you right now—everything else is history or fantasy. You’ll get where you want to go as long as you take more steps in the right direction than the wrong one.
Symptom #3 of a Fatitude Problem: The Helpless Victim Story
Do you often feel like something beyond your control dictates your eating and exercise choices? Do you think that you’re unable to resist certain foods or that other people are sabotaging your efforts by constantly putting temptations in your path? Do you find it hard to find time for healthy cooking and exercise because of all the demands on your time and energy from work, family responsibilities, and other priorities? Fatitude, again!
There’s no doubt that eating well and exercising regularly takes time and effort. But there’s also no doubt that everyone gets the same 24 hours in the day, and that everyone has many other responsibilities to contend with, too. Many of these same people manage to be successful at weight loss and healthy living anyway. The difference between success and failure is often in your expectations and the language you use to think and talk about the practical problems you face. The more you view your own behavior or decisions as being dictated by other people or circumstances, the more you give up the power to make your own decisions. The longer you wait for other people to change their ways to make things easier for you, the longer it will take you to reach your goals.
The Winning Attitude: You always have a choice. No food has the power to make you eat it, and no one else determines your values or priorities. Sure, the situation may be difficult; sometimes you may have to choose between less than ideal options, or even pick the lesser of two evils. But the choice is always yours, and the only way to fail in the long run is to fail to choose. So, ditch all those stories you tell yourself about why you have to do this or that! Make the best decision you can at the time, then move on to the next one.
Helpful Tool: Put "I" Into Your Vocabulary.
While these three signs of a fatitude problem are the most common, they aren't the only ones out there. There are also many other ways that your attitude, expectations, and thinking can help or hinder your success. The foundation of your success will be your belief that you can do what is necessary to reach your goals. Armed with this basic belief, there isn’t any problem you won’t be able to find a way around!
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