Whether it’s losing weight, getting out of debt, changing jobs or growing where we’ve been planted, starting a new business, you name it…if there is ANYTHING you want to change in your life you must first change your thinking! If nothing changes, nothing changes. The catalyst for change begins in your mind and in order for you to change your thinking you must first change these 5 things:
1. Change Your Beliefs
“What the mind can conceive and believe it will achieve”. How many times have we heard that saying? How many times have we taken it to heart? If you want to win at losing weight, or be successful at anything, you must first believe that you can!
Our minds are a powerful machine that goes to work to produce whatever we program it to produce. If you feed it and nourish it with affirming and uplifting thoughts, the output will be that of success and victory. However if you feed it with negativity and pessimism, well you know the saying…junk in, junk out. If you believe you are worth the time and effort, your mind will find every form of evidence to support that belief and set you up for success. Unfortunately, the same holds true if you believe you don’t deserve it. If you believe you can, you will! If you believe you can’t, you won’t. It’s that simple.
So, what do you believe about yourself? What do you believe about your ability to reach your goals? What do you believe about the process of losing weight and getting healthy? Do you believe it’s easy? Do you believe it’s hard? Do you believe you can do this? Do you believe you are capable of reaching your goals?
Here’s the good news: if your beliefs are negative and full of self doubt, you can change what you believe about yourself through positive affirmations and feeding your mind through books, podcasts and surrounding yourself with people who are moving in the same direction as you’d like to go.
The first step in changing the way you think is to change what you believe about yourself and the journey you are taking!
2. Change Your Expectations
This whole weight loss thing is tricky business. There’s a formula we are given and when we practice the formula, we “expect” results. Eat less, move more, lose weight. Simple, right? I don’t know about you but when I pass on the fried chicken and chocolate muffins for a week, and when I walk on the treadmill everyday for two weeks, I “expect” the scale to reward me with at least a 10lb. weight loss. I mean really, is that too much to ask? Is that too much to expect? In a word…YES!
The reason why we need to change our expectations about our weight loss journey is because when our expectations go unmet, it sets us up for disappointment. And disappointment can trigger binging, quitting, sabotage and a bunch of other negative reactions.
I love this quote: “The quality of our expectations determine the quality of our actions”. When we go around expecting things we don’t have any control over, those unrealistic expectations will then take control of us and lead us down a road we don’t wish to go.
Instead of expecting to lose large amounts of weight in a week, change the expectation to something more realistic such as…I expect that at the end of the week I will feel better… I will have more energy… I will feel good about myself because I kept my promise to eat healthy and move my body daily. Any weight loss that happens will be just icing on the cake (pun intended).
Do you have unrealistic expectations about your weight loss journey? What do you expect will be your experience? Are you expecting to be miserable the whole time? Are you expecting to learn new things about yourself and the process? Are you expecting you’ll have to give up everything you love? Do expect to grow? Do you expect to lose large amounts of weight in a short amount of time? How will you feel or respond if it doesn’t happen the way you “expect”?
If you want to change your thinking, you have to change your beliefs. If you want to change your beliefs, you have to change your expectations.
3. Change Your Attitude
“Your attitude determines your altitude”. I’m sure you’ve heard that saying a time or two. And while many of these sayings sound cliche’, if we were to stop scoffing at the familiarity of what we hear over and over again…and start thinking about the impact of putting these things into action, our lives would turn completely around. Following is my very short list of attitudes we’ve all had towards our weight loss journey. Where do you find yourself MOST OFTEN on this list? In the first half or the second?
- Lackadaisical – “I’ll get around to it”
- Non-committal – “Oh maybe I’ll do it tomorrow”
- Indifference – “Whatever, I don’t care anymore”
- Gloomy – “What difference does it make, nothing I do is working”
- Devoted – “The more I do it the better I will become”
- Acceptance – “I may not be where I want to be but I’m not where I was”
- Determined – “No matter what, I am going to reach my goal this week”
- Enthusiastic – “I can’t wait to get to the gym today to work off this stress”
How you think about and internalize the process of losing weight will have a huge impact on your success. Here’s another cliche’ for you…”it’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters”. Your attitude is an outward expression to what you are feeling internally. You can continue to allow your feelings to lead you astray, or you can suck it up, fake it til you make it and do what you need to do to get where you want to go. The choice is always yours.
So, what is your attitude towards eating healthy? What is your attitude about working out? Do you approach the process with an attitude of indifference, laziness, doom and gloom? Or do you approach it with an attitude of determination, perseverance, joy and anticipation? Yes, you can have joy in the process. Yes you can wake up with an attitude of anticipation about how you are going to show up for yourself today.
If you want to change your thinking, you have to change your beliefs. If you want to change your beliefs, you have to change your expectations. If you want to change your expectations, you have to change your attitude.
4. Change Your Behavior
“Actions speak louder than words”. Once you’ve done the inner work it’s now time for the rubber to meet the road. Changing your beliefs…modifying your expectations…making adjustments in your attitude towards your journey must now translate into ACTION! This all works together to transform your behavior. You see, once you take consistent action, then and only then do your actions become a habit. But in order for you to build healthy habits, you must first start with changing your behavior and doing things differently than what you’ve become accustomed to doing.
Take inventory of your current behavior. How do you act when you’re in a challenging situation? Do you reach for the ice cream? How do you behave when you’ve had a bad or stressful day? Do you skip your workout? What is the first thing you do when you get up in the morning? How do you conduct yourself when you’re out at a restaurant with friends? Here’s the thing, when you know better you do better or at least that is the goal. When you really have a changed and made up mind about reaching your goals, you’re able to push your “feelings” aside and do what you know needs to be done in order to accomplish your desired outcome. So, I have one questions for you…Whatcha gonna do?
If you want to change your thinking, you have to change your beliefs. If you want to change your beliefs, you have to change your expectations. If you want to change your expectations, you have to change your attitude. If want to change your attitude you have to change your behavior.
5. Change Your Performance
When I hear the word performance, I think of the phrase…”showtime”! Anyone who has been in a play or movie or any theatrical production knows the work that goes into pulling it off. You have to study, learn your lines, practice, plan and prepare yourself to put on a magnicent show. Your weight loss journey is one big production. Are you willing to do the work? Even if you have slip ups…and you will…the show must go on and that’s how we must approach our journey. We have to show up daily and we have to do the work!
You have to believe in yourself and your ability to get the job done. You have to expect that you are going to win in spite of the obstacles and challenges that threaten to stop you. You have to keep a positive and winning attitude at all times, and you have to act on your goals daily, choosing behavior to support them. And lastly you have to perform at your optimal best! Then and only then will you change your life! You will lose the weight and you will come alive.
You see, when you change your thinking, you change your beliefs. When you change your beliefs, you change your expectations. When you change your expectations, you change your attitude. When you change your attitude, you change your behavior. When you change your behavior, you change your performance. When you change your performance…YOU CHANGE YOUR LIFE…and victory in weight loss will be yours!!
I’ve provided this worksheet, which you can download here with the following prompts to help you to work through changing the way you think so that you can be successful on your weight loss journey.
- Write a positive belief statement about yourself and your ability to reach your goals.
- List 5 realistic expectations you have for your weight loss journey.
- List 10 positive attitudes you have towards your weight loss journey, ie: determined, optimistic, motivated.
- What are 3 behaviors you currently have that you are committed to changing?
- How are you planning to show up and perform on your weight loss journey this week?
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- If you’re ready to start your weight loss journey and don’t quite know where or how to start OR if you have a bump in the road and need some direction and guidance, you can sign up here for a free discovery session here. I would love to speak with you and learn how I can help you reach your goals. Click here to schedule an appointment.
Your Turn To Share
Share a belief, expectation, attitude and or behavior you currently have towards your weight loss journey, and how you plan to change it.