     |
Weight Loss Article 3 -
'Pack Before You Travel'
by Nev Dodds
author of 'Fat Loss For The Rest of Us'
As mentioned in the previous article, it's absolutely vital to get the preliminaries right, if you're to be successful with your weight-loss campaign.
Think about it - you don't pack for a trip after you've left home, do you?
If you - like most - have tried many different diets, you'll know already that:
It's hard to stay focused, when you feel like you're starving
You can have a miserable time, especially when the scales won't budge!
When you quit the diet, the weight goes back on quicker than ever
So why, if we know these things, don't we plan for them before they happen? It can be done, and here's how...
Mind Over Matter
Will-power (which is what most people think will get them through a diet) is extremely mood-dependent.
Once you're feeling down about something - whether or not it has to do with your diet - the will-power is soon lost. And that's when disaster strikes!
So, how do you achieve 'mind over matter'? You build it into your plan!
Step 1
You've probably found that when you lapse with your diet, you start to thinking: "Oh, I've blown it now. I may as well quit altogether."
W-r-r-r-rong!
All that's happened is you've suffered a glitch.
It's going to happen, so why not plan for it? That way, it's not a glitch, it's part of the program!
Strict, restrictive diets set up cravings. These are powerful, subconscious (or conscious) urges that are difficult to resist. That means they're best avoided.
How to do that? Well, let's imagine you have a lot of weight to lose. That means you're looking to follow that diet (whatever it is) for a year or even longer. That's a long time to resist foods that you love.
So plan some lapses...
This is good policy anyway, because your body's metabolism (its energy-burning stove, if you like) is a very adaptable thing. If it senses a low calorie, restrictive diet, it allows for that by burning less energy and by storing fat. As you know, when you're dieting, that is the last thing you want to happen.
But you can fool your body. Just don't do the same thing for too long.
If you stick to your diet for 5 days, then have a lapse day, when you eat some of the stuff you've been missing (and increase your calorie intake for that day), you do two things:
You avoid building up those cravings
You prevent your body from switching into 'starvation mode' after which it stores fat no matter how little you eat.
Step 2
You write down the things you need to do to achieve success with your weight loss program, and you read them to yourself.
Often. At least twice a day.
Why would you do that? After all, you know why you're dieting, don't you? So why mumble crazy things to yourself?
It's because your subconscious mind is what often trips you up and undermines your plans. It's probably been conditioned by years of failing with diets and eating plans, and it now routinely thinks 'Diets don't work' or 'I never succeed with diets'.
If you repeat some positive messages to yourself often enough, your subconscious starts to work with you rather than against you.
And make the last item on the list "I read my goals at least twice a day". That is important, because I can't tell you how many people I've known who wrote down their goals and then stopped reading them daily. What does that tell you about the negativity of their unconscious minds? It was so strong, it wouldn't even let them try to succeed!
I hope you're beginning to recognise that you can help yourself to succeed with your weight loss program this time.
It's important to have a plan, to know what it is you're trying to do, and to recognise ahead of time the sort of things that are likely to knock you off course...
... or even right off your diet!
There are some important steps to take before you even embark on a weight loss plan. I'll tell you about those in the next weight loss article of this series.
Return from Weight Loss Article 3 to WLJ Home
