The Proper Weight Loss Mindset
Obesity is the physical sign of a bad mindset. In order to lose weight and keep it off, you must adopt the proper mindset. Most of you believe that losing weight involves having willpower and being perfect. This is the wrong mindset to have. Permanent weight loss involves planning and persevering.
Willpower
Willpower is your brains attempt to overcome your natural tendencies and desires. The brain is powerful, but so is nature. You will never be able to consistently defeat your yearn to overeat or eat bad foods. If you depend on willpower to lose weight you will fail. You will fail miserably. This failure will cause you to give up, become depressed, and overeat.
Perfection
You believe that if you are perfect you will lose weight. If you follow your nutrition and activity plan perfectly, you will lose weight and lose it quickly. If you believe that, you are right. The only problem is that you cannot be perfect. You are human and you will “slip up”. You will fail. The bad habits that caused you to gain weight are deeply ingrained, and you will not eliminate them overnight. If you expect to be perfect, you will fail. This failure will simply cause weight gain in the future.
Planning
You do not need willpower to lose weight. However, you do need to plan. Planning your life properly will eliminate the need for willpower. Here are some examples of proper weight loss planning:
- Take your lunch with you to work. This eliminates the willpower necessary to buy a salad in the cafeteria instead of the burger.
- Make Tuesday night’s dinner on Monday night. This eliminates the willpower necessary to not stop at McDonald’s on your way home from work.
- Join a gym in between your job and your home. Then put your gym bag in your car the night before you plan to work out. This eliminates the willpower necessary to not drive straight home after work.
Perseverance
Perfection is overrated. Long term pound losers are not perfect. Actually, they failed often during their journeys. The key is perseverance. Expect failure. Embrace it. Every failure is a learning experience. Just do not give up. If you learn from your failures and stay the course you will succeed.
Depending on willpower and perfection will lead to weight loss failure. If you want to lose the pounds and keep them off, depend on planning and perseverance.
Dr. Kalvin Chinyere is a weight-loss expert and ex-fat man. He is also the creator of the Don’t Go Broke Weight Loss Plan and the main contributor at Dr. Kal’s Blog.
This article is spot on, really enjoyed reading it! The key is when you experience setbacks, just keep picking yourself up and try again. Thanks!
Yes, that’s a major thing. I used to always give up when I had a set back, now I know to just move on.
Hey, I just posted my results (w/ photos). Have you sent me yours yet? I am pretty sure at least one of you did better than me, so I am ready to pay up, whoever the winner might be.
You are definitely right about the power of the brain. If you set it in motion to do something then look out!
If a person really wants to loose weight then the first thing they have to do is to WANT to loose weight other wise you’re spinning your wheels. Once you have it in your mind that you are going to loose weight then the battle is half won.
Thanks for your thoughts on establishing the right mindset, Dr. Kal! I’ve found that being super strict with my planning (and recording both my gym time and nutrition) help fuels the determination to get healthy.
Agree. Willpower is a must in weight loss.
I agree with you completely