Do you consider yourself to be an optimist, or a pessimist? Would you believe that your state of mind day to day has a big impact on how much you weight you lose? Let’s face it; losing weight can be hard. You’ve got to constantly work on improving your eating habits, avoiding fattening foods you used to love, making time for exercise each day, and generally devoting a fair amount of time to taking good care of yourself.
When you try to do all these things under a cloud of negative thinking, it just feels that much harder. Your negative self-talk works against you so you feel unmotivated, bitter, and disgusted by all the things you “have” to do to lose weight.
On the other hand, when you develop some healthy positive thinking habits, you’ll find that losing weight becomes much easier. You’ll enjoy exercise. You’ll love preparing healthy meals and snacks. Taking good care of yourself becomes a joy, not a chore.
Here are five good ways to develop a positive, optimistic state of mind to make your weight loss easier:
#1 – Believe in yourself. Start affirming your belief that you deserve to lose weight and create a healthier lifestyle. Say things like this to yourself often: “I know I can do this, and I know I’m worth the effort. I deserve to be healthy and happy, and the actions I take today will help me achieve that.”
#2 – Believe in your abilities. If you don’t believe you can easily lose weight and keep it off, you’ll be fighting an uphill battle the whole way to your goal weight. Combat this by consistently affirming that you CAN reach your goals. “I’m stronger than any cravings for sweets and junk food. I can make better choices for my own health and well-being. I’ve accomplished a lot in my life, and this weight loss is just one more achievement I can look forward to.”
#3 – Believe that challenges are fleeting. When you have a rough day, don’t take the pessimist’s viewpoint that you can’t handle it. Keep telling yourself that challenges come and go. It’s how you react to them that’s important. “I’m having a hard time sticking to my eating plan today, but I’m just going to take it moment by moment. The cravings will pass and I’ll feel really good about myself tomorrow if I just do my best today.”
#4 – Believe that you can never fail.Failure is only sure when you give up. If you simply keep reminding yourself that you are in this journey for the long haul, you’ll know that you can’t fail. Keep repeating to yourself, “Failure is impossible for me.”
#5 – Believe that you are already successful. Make a long list of everything you set out to do in the past, and did it. What have you accomplished in your life? What goals did you meet that make you feel proud? They don’t have to be big goals! Did you intend to drink more water yesterday, and you did it? Did you intend to exercise for 30 minutes and did it? Write down every little success you can think of, and affirm that achieving your weight loss goal will be just as easy, and just as certain.
Weight loss is a challenge, and all challenges shrink in the face of an optimistic, determined mindset.
So I am back and trying to get control! My plan is to take charge, make healthy choices and use thiscsite to stay on track. I plan on using a low gi approach, eating whole foods which incorporate clean eating!
Corinna, what a great cheerleader you are, thanks! I DID try on the "too tight pants" as I dressed for Church and resolved again to make a difference this week.
Breakfast was healthy and decent calories. Lunch bit higher but reasonable. Trying to convince myself to go to the gym now that it is warming up almost to 30 deg.
Milking a cow, I haven't done, but can understand a concern for being stepped on by such a heavy animal.
#3 – Believe that challenges are fleeting. This is one I need to work on and to journal about, too.
Beached, good to meet you. May 2015 be the year we each can let go unnecessary pounds and perhaps excess baggage, too. I'm also aware of the low GI way of eating and trying to also use this.
Benee and Corinna you had losses! Good to hear.
Last edited by love2garden; 01-11-2015 at 12:40 PM.
Reason: More thoughts
Beached. Glad to have you join this thread. We look forward to helping you reach your goal. There is a great group of people here. Just jump right in, your among friends. We will all do this together.
Love2Garden. Good, I'm glad you tried on those pants! Just imagine how good you use to look in them too. Guess what... you WILL be wearing those pants again, and they WILL feel comfortable. That's right. You can do it. Keep yourself motivated this week. Don't back down. Each week counts. It's all the little steps that get you there. That's right. Back into those pants you love once again.
Renee-are you staying warm? What do you do to keep yourself busy inside the house and away from snacking? In the winter, I have a bad habit of snacking more often to keep warm. Are there any tricks that you have learned to keep from extra snacking and gaining extra weight? Or are you able to just go cold turkey?
Today was rather busy at work. Then I got frustrated, and since I couldn't have things the way I liked, ... snack food entered my mind. I thought well, I will just get something sweet. But just as quickly as the thought entered my mind, I felt my body halt right in place. I thought right then and there, NO, that is a bad way to react to what I can't control. I won't ruin what I have accomplished so far by weakening. I pushed the snack thought far away, and I found myself almost smiling. Yes I am slowly conquering this emotional battle.
Are you looking for some simple, basic, exercise workouts to get your body moving?
Perhaps you are looking for something a bit harder or something a bit different for a bit of variety in your exercise program.
Whatever the case may be, I have found that FitnessBlender.com has a good assortment of high-quality, full-length workout videos for every fitness level. Absolutely free. Here is one to get you started.
Corinna - It's nasty here today...freezing rain and ice. I will need my ice grips to walk out to the barn. Should be getting a bit warmer here this week. I've been cleaning out drawers and closets while the weather is bad and I ditched all the snack temptations. When I get the urge for a snack, I make myself a cup of tea. I love all the different herbal tea flavors. I had a luncheon meeting yesterday and I did good. Just had a cup of soup and half a sandwich.
Renee, good hot cup of tea, smells good, taste goods, smiles follow! Cleaning is part of my day today - Updating Quicken and will have receipts to garbage or file.
Corinna, thanks for the ideas but I'm fortunate enough to belong to the same gym as our daughter. We drove the 6 miles there and had great workout. Some of the machines we share the same settings, making it faster to move from one to the other. Her mild suggestions to exercise have been such a blessing.
DH is finally over his bronchitis and we came home to a mopped kitchen and he was heading to mop the bathrooms. How fortunate am I?
If you're not drinking tea yet, read up on these 10 ways tea does your body good and then see if you're ready to change your Starbucks order!
1. Tea contains antioxidants. Like the Rust-Oleum paint that keeps your outdoor furniture from rusting, tea's antioxidants protect your body from the ravages of aging and the effects of pollution.
2. Tea has less caffeine than coffee. Coffee usually has two to three times the caffeine of tea (unless you're a fan of Morning Thunder, which combines caffeine with mate, an herb that acts like caffeine in our body). An eight-ounce cup of coffee contains around 135 mg caffeine; tea contains only 30 to 40 mg per cup. If drinking coffee gives you the jitters, causes indigestion or headaches or interferes with sleep -- switch to tea.
3. Tea may reduce your risk of heart attack and stroke. Unwanted blood clots formed from cholesterol and blood platelets cause heart attack and stroke. Drinking tea may help keep your arteries smooth and clog-free, the same way a drain keeps your bathroom pipes clear. A 5.6-year study from the Netherlands found a 70 percent lower risk of fatal heart attack in people who drank at least two to three cups of black tea daily compared to non-tea drinkers.
4. Tea protects your bones.It's not just the milk added to tea that builds strong bones. One study that compared tea drinkers with non-drinkers, found that people who drank tea for 10 or more years had the strongest bones, even after adjusting for age, body weight, exercise, smoking and other risk factors. The authors suggest that this may be the work of tea's many beneficial phytochemicals.
5. Tea gives you a sweet smile. One look at the grimy grin of Austin Powers and you may not think drinking tea is good for your teeth, but think again. It's the sugar added to it that's likely to blame for England's bad dental record. Tea itself actually contains fluoride and tannins that may keep plaque at bay. So add unsweetened tea drinking to your daily dental routine of brushing and flossing for healthier teeth and gums.
6. Tea bolsters your immune defenses. Drinking tea may help your body's immune system fight off infection. When 21 volunteers drank either five cups of tea or coffee each day for four weeks, researchers saw higher immune system activity in the blood of the tea drinkers.
7. Tea protects against cancer. Thank the polyphenols, the antioxidants found in tea, once again for their cancer-fighting effects. While the overall research is inconclusive, there are enough studies that show the potential protective effects of drinking tea to make adding tea to your list of daily beverages.
8. Tea helps keep you hydrated. Caffeinated beverages, including tea, used to be on the list of beverages that didn't contribute to our daily fluid needs. Since caffeine is a diuretic and makes us pee more, the thought was that caffeinated beverages couldn't contribute to our overall fluid requirement. However, recent research has shown that the caffeine really doesn't matter -- tea and other caffeinated beverages definitely contribute to our fluid needs. The only time the caffeine becomes a problem as far as fluid is concerned is when you drink more than five or six cups of a caffeinated beverage at one time.
9. Tea is calorie-free. Tea doesn't have any calories, unless you add sweetener or milk. Consuming even 250 fewer calories per day can result in losing one pound per week. If you're looking for a satisfying, calorie-free beverage, tea is a top choice.
10. Tea increases your metabolism. Lots of people complain about a slow metabolic rate and their inability to lose weight. Green tea has been shown to actually increase metabolic rate so that you can burn 70 to 80 additional calories by drinking just five cups of green tea per day. Over a year's time you could lose eight pounds just by drinking green tea. Of course, taking a 15-minute walk every day will also burn calories.
(http://www.today.com/health/top-10-health-benefits-drinking-tea-2D12052713)
Yesterday was a 2 out of 3 kind of day.
Breakfast and dinner were healthy and good choices, low gi recipes. Lunch was not. But considering that was a good day.
What would we do without nuts? I'm careful about the amount I eat, but I do have some daily. Think that helps my skin better than fancy creams.
Just finished changing the announcements to go into our Church to a font and colors that one can read from a distance to go on bulletin board. Took time to adjust all 7 of them, but am pleased with my patience and the results. Commitment to do the best I can daily.
Heading to Gym and actually looking forward to it. Scale is moving, slowly but in the right direction.
So grateful for our warm, safe home. For Parents who loved me and siblings that put up with my being the youngest. So grateful for my kind and funny husband, our children, etc, friends, Church family, garden to work in and enjoy it so much , able to pay our bills, wants that are simple and easily filled.
Lose More Weight by Being Optimistic
Welcome beached...glad to have you join our group. Lots of tips and encouragement here!
That's right. You can do it. Keep yourself motivated this week. Don't back down. Each week counts. It's all the little steps that get you there. That's right. Back into those pants you love once again. 
