Mindset Strategies for Fat Loss
Welcome back to BETTER, the email series that provides tips, tools, and strategies for progressing toward your goals.
Today, we have a powerful subject: How our mindset can positively affect our body fat.
Read on:
Envisioning the future is a powerful tool: Take a second today and imagine how great it will feel to hit that goal you've had kicking around in your head for a while now. Can you sense the smile on your face? Feel the contentment wash over you? The excitement bubbles up from your heart and positively infects everything. When we set out to challenge ourselves and complete the challenge, we've closed the loop in our brains and allowed a healthy dose of feel-good hormones to wash over us. This is special because we are the only ones who can give us this feeling, and it is only through challenging work that we experience it.
Accept the challenge and understand it's only temporary: Acknowledging that losing body fat will be challenging and sometimes uncomfortable is essential. Our brains need to know we are stepping out of our comfort zone and that mental resources will be required to persevere when things get tough, and temptation knocks. It is also important to understand that you can shift from a "losing" mindset to a maintenance mindset at some point in the future.
Good to know; progress never follows a linear trajectory. The human body is fantastic, complicated, and sometimes hard to predict. Progress typically happens in spurts rather than continuously when working to lose body fat. Don't lose heart if you seem stalled for a few days or weeks. Positive changes are happening under the surface; just give the body time to work it out.
How do we get BETTER at causing our minds to affect our body fat goals positively? Start by taking one of the strategies discussed above and adding it as a reminder alarm on your phone. Set the alarm during the day when your motivation is typically at its lowest, or create several alarms with positive messages that remind us to stay the course.
The best changes start from within. We just have to give them enough time to grow and root themselves in our minds.