weight loss and diet, Right Mindset for Optimum Weight Loss by Dawn McIntyre

Have you tried to lose weight before? Many people have, to varying degrees. Some have tried to really lose a lot of weight, whereas others were more interested in just trimming down a bit here and there.

But if you have tried before, the question is: Did it work?

On the whole, weight loss can depend on many things. Granted, genetics does play a role, though not as often as is commonly held. In the majority of cases, it is actually a lot of other factors at work that determine how successful or unsuccessful your weight loss is.

And no factor is more important than your mental state of being.

Quite simply, your mindset is going to govern everything about your effort to lose weight. It is going to determine whether or not you´re going to lose any weight at all, how much weight you´re able to lose, and even how fast you´re able to lose it.

Many people brush this off as being part and parcel of some psychological mumbo-jumbo, but be aware that if you ignore the mental aspect of weight loss, you do so at your own risk.

Fortunately, you´ve come to exactly the right place to learn how to acquire the perfect mindset that will help you to achieve optimum weight loss.

Consider this to be a guide that is going to equip you with you the most powerful weapon that anyone could ever hope to have when it comes to losing weight. Armed with it, you will find that everything that seemed oh-so-impossible somehow seems less daunting than you thought it would be.

Embracing the right mindset isn´t exactly a walk in the park though.

Indeed, one of the hardest things to do is to actually change the way in which we think, so don´t assume that this is going to be a guide that transforms you overnight. As you´re about to find out, the changes that you need to achieve are best taken gradually.

If you´re thinking that this sounds too hard – think again. Although it is tough to get the ´perfect´ mindset, you´re going to be seeing some amazing results even along the way. With each and every step forward that you take, you´ll find that your weight loss comes that much easier.

In a nutshell, yes, it is a hard path, but it´s also one that is going to make everything that you do from this point on that much simpler.

So, the big question on the table is this: How do you go about achieving this mindset?

And to really, truly, begin to start working towards it, you need to figure out what is meant by the ´right´ mindset for weight loss.

Mental Pitfalls that Stand in the Way of Weight Loss

Frankly speaking, the best way to approach what you need to mentally equip yourself for weight loss is to start by thinking about what stands in your way.

Thus, the question becomes: What is it, mentally, that is stopping you from being that ideal weight which you so desire?

And the most obvious answer to that is: Maybe you don´t desire it enough.

Granted, you may think that you really want to lose weight. In fact, you may even think about losing weight every minute of every day. But just thinking about something isn´t the same as actually desiring it.

After all, if you desired to lose weight that much, you´d probably have done pretty much everything that it takes to lose weight. And if you´ve tried to do everything at some point or other something would probably have worked.

As you can undoubtedly guess though, this problem of ´desire´ isn´t as simple as first meets the eye.

Sometimes, you may have really and truly desired something to start out with, and done quite a bit to try to accomplish it. However, if everything you did just seemed to go horribly wrong, then it is quite easy to be disheartened.

Similarly, if you expected to lose 20 kg in a day or two, you may be just as disheartened, no matter how unrealistic a target that was.

Being too disheartened will inevitably end up chipping away at any desire you may have had to lose weight. Not only that, but it could actually even end up being counterproductive to your efforts, and cause you to self-sabotage.

In many ways, having desire and then losing it and becoming disheartened is probably even worse than not having enough desire in the first place.

Cluttered in between these two big problems are other issues that can contribute to either, or both, of them. Some, such as being unsure about how exactly to lose weight, can actually become a very big pitfall, if not handled properly.

At this point, you should be starting to see that all these pitfalls are things that can be avoided.

Don´t worry – you don´t need to make a checklist of every possible pitfall out there, and then try to avoid them all at once. That would just be ridiculously time consuming, and silly to boot.

Instead, the simple fact of the matter is that with the right mindset, you can ensure that you´re mentally well equipped to deal with practically any and all of these problems as and when you may come across them.

Essentially, the right mindset will allow you to dodge what you can dodge, and deal with whatever you can´t dodge.

How do you begin to get to that point? Well, we´re about to get to just that.

Stoking the Flames of Desire

First, a question: How much do you really want to lose weight, and what are you willing to do to lose it?

If you answered straight away, and very firmly, ´Anything!´ you´re on the right track. But if you didn´t, well, you may have some ways to go.

Of course, your response would have depended on the type of person you are. But largely, the point is this: Desire is something that you absolutely must have if you´re going to stand any chance of success.

And you don´t just need any old type of desire. You need a fiery desire that is consuming enough to compel you to do what it takes!

Okay, so we´ve been talking about ´doing what it takes´ quite a bit, and it´s probably going to be a good idea to clarify just what it is going to take. By no means does any of this mean that we´re going to ask you to starve yourself to lose weight.

That´d just be silly.

Instead, the willingness to do what it takes implies more that you´re willing and open to choosing a course of action and going for it. Later on, we´ll discuss this entire ´choosing´ process a little more, but for now, that´s what you need most.

See, the problem with desire is that as much as many people think they have enough of it, most really don´t.

If you´ve tried before, and given up, that probably means that you didn´t really have enough desire to lose weight.

If you´ve felt that you really do want to lose weight, but not ended up doing anything about it, then you definitely didn´t have enough desire.

Know what? You´d probably be surprised how many people are facing exactly those two problems that we just outlined. And it all boils down to the central theme that we´re now discussing: Desire.

Now, if you´re reading this guide, and these words, that would mean that you already must have some desire to lose weight, at very least.

What you now need to do is ensure that the desire that you do have is strong enough to be translated into action. Unfortunately, this is the real trick that ends up flawing many others, and is the first stumbling point that must be overcome.

So it is up to you, now that you know all this, to steel yourself and make certain that you´re willing to go the distance as far as losing those extra pounds is concerned!

Having a strong willpower helps, because really, if you can set your mind to achieving your goals, and then will yourself into action towards those selfsame goals, then you´re right on course.

But this isn´t all you can do – not by a long shot.

Although desire is going to form the basis for your initial action, it can be kept going through constant motivation, and that´s something that is more easily nurtured.

Be sure that you understand everything that we´ve covered this far, because it is going to form the basis of our very, very important next section. Combine what you´ve learnt now, and what you´re about to learn, and you´ll find that your mindset will already be vastly improved.

Motivation through Goals and Targets

In order to keep focus on what you want to achieve, it would make sense that you would first need a hard and fast idea of what exactly it is that you actually do want to achieve!

These are your goals, or targets. Whatever you prefer to call them, in essence, the meaning remains the same, and they´re going to be what you aim for, and what you try to accomplish within your weight loss.

Basically, any good goal or target has a single purpose: To motivate you.

And there are two ways in which having a target can accomplish this:

1.By providing you with a challenge to work towards

2.Instilling a sense of accomplishment, and encouragement

Both of these components are part and parcel of the effectiveness that comes with having some firm, set, goals. But in order for your goals to really do what you want them to, they´re going to need to be both challenging, but at the same time, realistic.

For instance, if you had a goal to lose 10 kg in a day – well that would just be completely unrealistic, and you´d never accomplish it.

On the other hand, if your goal was instead to lose 1 kg in a year – that would just be too easy, and you´d have no sense of challenge to accomplish it.

Thus, the perfect type of goal that you´re going to want to set is one that comes somewhere in between. Before you do so though, you should know that there are two general types of targets that you can set, and each has its own special purpose.

Long Term Goals

Anything that is going to take a large span of time could be considered a long term goal. So, when it comes to weight loss, this may be a yearly or half-yearly goal that you´d like to achieve.

In fact, you probably already have a fairly decent idea of what your long term goal is already.

Depending on your preference, you could set a hard-and-fast long term goal that is based on actual figures to your weight loss. Or, if you like, you could even keep your long term goal as a more general desire to attain a certain look or build.

Of course, it is worth noting that if you add actual figures to your goal, it will give you something a lot more tangible to work towards, and challenge yourself while you do so.

Just spend a few minutes thinking about what you really want to attain from your weight loss, and then devise it into a goal. Try to make it something that is truly worth achieving, to you, at least, so that if you do end up hitting your target, you´ll feel that glow of accomplishment.

Do not set long term goals that can really be achieved with little or no effort.

Also, while you´re at it, keep in mind that there is one other type of goal that is going to be intertwined with this long term goal. Let´s discuss that now…

Short Term Goals

As the name well implies, short term goals are the variety of goals that can be achieved over a shorter span of time.

So instead of going by year, or half-years, your short term goals would probably be weekly, biweekly, or even monthly. Really, the choice of span is up to you at the end of the day, so choose something that you´re comfortable with.

Some people like to constantly have something to measure their performance against, but when it comes to weight loss, weekly results might be slightly unreasonable.

Still, whatever span is chosen, there is one thing in particular about short term goals that really does tie in to the long term goals that we just discussed. And this is nothing other than the fact that your short term goals should be geared towards hitting your long term goal.

Think of it this way: If your long term goal was to lose 15 kg in 6 months, then your short term goals could be to lose 2.5 kg for each month.

That way, each of your short term goals would be working towards the actual achievement of that bigger, and much more appealing, long term goal!

Setting up your short term goals in this structure is very necessary. Not only will it help your achievement of your final goal, but it will also provide you with a valuable progress gauge so that you constantly know how well you´re doing as you try to achieve that target.

Remember though, all the other rules of goals and targets that we´ve discussed so far still apply, so make your short term goals realistic, but not too easy to accomplish either!

Once you´ve done all of this, you should have a nice set of short term goals, all working towards that final target (the long term goal!). If you have already started to set up your goals and targets, congratulations, you´re well on your way.

But if you haven´t, then take a minute to at least think about them, because having even the roughest of ideas is going to help you with everything you do.

Before we finish off our discussion of goals and targets, it is important that you know how exactly you can use them to your best advantage. Yes, it isn´t enough to just have a list of goals that you occasionally check against.

Ideally, your goals should be helping you a lot more than that!

Working With Goals and Targets that Motivate and Propel Action

Remember that every goal and target that you set is really designed to motivate you. Motivate you to do what? Well, take action, of course!

Through the encouragement and sense of accomplishment, as well as the challenge of hitting targets, this can be achieved with ease. But the question is, what happens if you don´t hit a goal?

Most importantly, there´s no point sulking about it. Instead, every time you pass a certain milestone, you should evaluate how well you did.

Even for targets that you did manage to hit, it would not be amiss to still carry out an evaluation of everything that you did in order to achieve it. By doing this, you´ll be able to identify areas that can be improved on.

In a nutshell, the purpose of your evaluation is to identify what worked and what didn´t.

After that, assuming that you did fail to hit one of your targets, you have a choice. Based on your evaluation, you need to decide whether or not you feel that you can realistically hit the next target.

If you feel you can, great. But if you don´t, then you should seriously consider re-tweaking your goals so that they´re still realistic.

Put in another way: Failing to hit one goal is not the end of the world. What matters is that you learn from it, and improve on both your methods, as well as your goals themselves.

By adopting this type of philosophy towards goals and targets, you´ll be able to improve on many aspects of your weight loss at once. Best of all, you´ll also do so in a way that keeps you on your toes, and motivated to get out there and achieve more!

Incidentally, it is worth noting that the opposite of this situation applies as well.

As you identify weaknesses and improve on them, you´re going to undoubtedly find that you´re able to hit your targets more easily. And if they become too easy, then they´re not going to be challenging enough to be targets worth hitting!

Thus, if you feel that you can accomplish more, then it would be wise to scale your targets upwards.

Keep at it constantly, and you´ll go much further than you possibly even imagined. Acquiring and adhering to the right sort of goals and targets is something that truly is powerful in its own right.

Choosing the Path that is Best for You!

Although goals and targets are going to help you form a structure for yourself, you want to be absolutely sure that you´ve picked a path that works.

Earlier on, we´d mentioned that the entire ´choosing´ process would be discussed – and this is where we do just that!

Despite the fact that taking action is important, you´ll undoubtedly want to have some sort of assurance that you´re on the right track. After all, with the abundance of information about weight loss that is out there (and in many cases, actually conflicts with one another), things can get slightly confusing.

In terms of your mindset however, it is crucially important that you are confident that you´re on the right path.

If you aren´t too confident, and you don´t see results, you could end up abandoning your efforts altogether, and maybe even end up disheartened or disillusioned. On the other hand, if you are confident in your path, but mistakenly so, you could end up wasting a lot of time.

To sum it up: You need to know what works and what doesn´t.

While in some cases, weight loss may end up being a case of trial and error, in others, you can avoid even having to go through the trials, and the errors. One great rule of thumb to follow is simply the age-old saying, "If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is!"

Considering that there are constantly new miracle-weight-loss products that promise incredible results, but with very little (if any!) solid evidence to back them up, it shouldn´t be too tough to spot those that are blatantly not ´real´.

However, even that doesn´t narrow things down nearly enough, which is where the trial and error part does come into play.

Fortunately, you already have a process by which to evaluate your methods (we discussed it in the last section, remember?), so all that you need to now do is a little bit of homework on whatever paths you´re considering.

That way, you´ll at least have a rough idea what you´re getting yourself into!

Frankly speaking, what works for one person when it comes to losing weight may not work half as well for someone else. Due to the sheer amount of factors that are involved, it is close to impossible to find a ´one size fits all´ regime.

So the key to your ´right path´ is to simply find the path that suits you best, whatever that may be!

Choosing types of exercise or diets (or any other weight loss regimes) that suit you is something that is based on a few main factors:

1.Never pick a regime that you can´t fit into your schedule, chances are you won´t end up sticking to it for long.

2.Choose a regime that you could possibly enjoy, at least slightly. If you pick something that you actually like, you are that much more likely to stick with it.

3.Don´t try to take on too much, too soon. For example, if you haven´t exercised much, trying to run 10 miles a day would be close to impossible.

Follow these three guidelines, and you should be able to come up with something that is fitting.

To further what we´ve been discussing about ´structure´ and ´paths´, there´s one more key component to the right mindset that will help you accomplish both. Think you can guess what it is?

Developing and Sticking to a Plan

Everything that we´ve covered so far has led us up to this point. Truth be told, you could look at the last few chapters as having provided the ingredients that you´re going to need in order to get to this point.

Now, it´s time to put those ingredients together, and come up with a plan!

Okay, admittedly, developing a plan isn´t exactly part of building a mindset, but heeding it, on the other hand, really does require a very specific frame of mind. Partly, it´s a question of willpower, as well as motivation and desire.

But self-discipline also has a role to play here.

On the whole, developing a plan could give you a very methodical course of action to follow. Some people don´t need this, and are, by nature, able to improvise in a off-the-cuff manner, and get things done methodically anyway.

However, many others could use all the help that they could get.

Based on everything we´ve discussed so far, your plan should be pretty easy to formulate. By making the right choices, adjusting your goals, and compensating your plans as required, you really do have all the groundwork that you need.

Take your time, and work out something that works for you. Don´t be afraid to try out new ideas, or modify your plan at any point that you see fit. Whenever you do make a change to your plan, note what that change is, for future reference.

If it doesn´t work out, then you´ll at least know for certain that you tried.

Once your plan is laid out, the only thing left to do is really stick to it as closely as you can. Some of the very important facts that you need to instill in your mindset include:

1.Never put off or skip any part of your plan. If you do, it might as well not be a part of your plan.

2.Constantly remind yourself of important parts of your plan, and through repetitive performance, you´ll notice that your ´plan´ becomes more and more a part of your lifestyle.

3.Should your schedule change, adapt your plan accordingly as quickly as possible so you don´t end up sacrificing it and having to start from scratch.

4.Despite adhering to your plan as closely as possible, try not to be too rigid, or you´ll find that the slightest change in your plan could throw you off.

Each of these aspects of your mindset will prepare you for some of the inevitable hurdles that you´ll need to jump over to get to your goal. Be mindful of them, and you should find that you´re able to execute your plan to perfection.

And naturally, when you can do that – everything else should fall into place!

For now, let´s move on and look at something else that plays a far more active role in weight loss, whether you know it or not. In fact, it is probably going to be one of the aspects of your mindset that most directly affects all your efforts.

Not Letting Stress Hinder Your Weight Loss

Naturally, at some point in time or other, stress just seems to build up. Whether it´s due to work, your personal life, or something else entirely is irrelevant, and the simple fact of the matter is: Stress is bad.

Not only can stress cause a host of health-related problems, but in terms of weight loss, it can also play a role in sabotaging your efforts.

So, as far as humanly possible, it would be a good idea to try to avoid stress as much as possible. Or, rather, deal with any stress that does inevitably accumulate quickly, before it piles up and gets worse.

After all, that´s one of the worst things about stress – if left unattended, it has a tendency to start to stack higher and higher, until the effects that you would feel are that much more crippling.

At this juncture, it is important to note stress has the tendency to affect your entire mindset negatively.

Not only does it deal a blow to your enthusiasm and desire to lose weight, but it also can hit you digestion system, which will lead to a whole other collection of problems.

Long story short, if you have issues with stress, you´ll want to manage them. And, even if you don´t currently find yourself face to face with a stress problem, it would still be a good idea to learn how you can build your mindset up to combat stress, as and when it arises.

End of the day, it is a fairly safe bet that eventually, you will face stress of some form or other.

Training Your Mindset to Cope with Stress

Incidentally, apart from training your mindset to cope with stress, you could, if feasible, handle your stress issues by getting to the root of the problem. In other words, finding out what is causing you to become so tense, and dealing with it in some way or other.

However, in many cases this isn´t a possibility.

And when it isn´t, it is vital that your mindset is fully equipped to deal with whatever curveball life has thrown your way, without getting stressed out over it. If you like, you could even consider it in another way: You need to learn how to relax.

Mind you, relaxing doesn´t just mean stretching out on the sofa and flicking through TV stations. Nor does it mean reading a book, or engaging in some other hobby that might take your mind off of your problems for a while.

No – in this context, learning how to relax means learning how to cope with your stress so that you´re able to minimize it, rather than just shoving it away for an hour or two.

Bear in mind, this can be quite difficult, depending on how stressed out you are exactly, and how capable you are normally of dealing with it. Still, there are a number of things that you could try:

1.Meditation has long been known to help relieve stress, and alleviate mental tenseness that you might be facing. Yoga too, has been known to help due to its meditative aspects.

2.A more conventional cure for stress is taking deep breaths, and trying to calm your mind down while stepping back from the situation that is causing it.

3.Getting a good night´s sleep, is yet another key ingredient to managing stress. If you´re not well rested, chances are your mind will be more susceptible to stress.

4.Training your mindset to be more positive can help you to not get too tense, too often.

With these types of stress-management skills instilled in your mindset, you´ll find that you´re not too likely to end up suffering from the ill effects of stress.

And it should go without saying that, after all we´ve discussed, this is really going to prove to be a tremendous advantage. Still, there is one thing of note that we just mentioned that does deserve to be discussed more deeply.

Yes, it is the fourth point – and it really is going to play a bigger role in your newfound mindset that you may have initially imagined!

Remaining Positive Throughout Every Challenge

One of the hardest things to do is to somehow pull through every obstacle in your way, and remain unscathed. Earlier, we talked about this in terms of stress, and how to manage it, but one of the ways to manage stress ties into something much bigger.

Positive thinking, or rather, remaining positive no matter what comes your way, is something that is far more powerful than merely being a tool to manage stress.

In some ways, we´ve covered a few aspects of positive thinking already, in a very indirect way. For example, not letting your failure to attain a certain goal get to you, but instead evaluating its performance, is certainly one way to turning a bad situation into a good one.

Even that isn´t entirely the full picture as far as positive thinking goes however.

Look at it in this way: Over the course of your efforts to lose weight, there are bound to be times when you feel down, discouraged, or just simply disappointed with how things are going in general.

Whether or not these feelings are justified is secondary, but what is more important is how you react to them.

Some people respond in a very dour manner, and end up convincing themselves that their entire effort has been a mistake. Needless to say, this often leads to a very, very bad conclusion, and it is one that you should try to avoid.

But if instead of responding in that manner, you look at things positively, and try to focus on what good you have accomplished, rather than what you haven´t accomplished, it could make a marked difference.

Take this situation as an example: Let´s just say you lost 2.5 kg, which was one of your short term goals. Unfortunately, when you look in the mirror, it really doesn´t look like that 2.5 kg made much of a difference at all.

Now in such a situation, you react in either of the following ways:

1."Oh man, that 2.5 kg made no difference at all. What´s the point of even continuing with this, it´s going to take forever for me to be slim."

OR

2."Hm, that 2.5 kg didn´t make as much of a difference as I hoped for, but it did seem to help my tummy slightly. The next 2.5 kg will definitely have me looking a lot better!"

Notice how the second approach frames things a little better? By offering yourself a little bit of encouragement, rather than whipping yourself for not having the results that you wanted, you can really put things in a way that is beneficial, rather than a deterrent.

Of course, you should be wary as to how positive you are.

Being positive simply for the sake of being positive can get you in as much trouble as being negative would. Let´s say you gained 2.5 kg instead of losing it – and figured that you´d look at it in a positive way.

Well, that would just mean that you´re justifying what is, undeniably, a big mistake.

In short, although you should definitely try to be positive, you should not let it become something that actually stops you from facing up to mistakes. Finding this balance is crucial, and the sooner you do so, the better!

Over time, you´ll also find that your sense of self-worth increase due to the positive thinking mindset that you´ve adopted. That, in itself, is something worth pursuing.

Anyway, we´re slowly drawing to a close, but there´s still one important section that we´ve yet to cover, and that is…

Maintaining and Nurturing a Commitment to the Cause

Last, but certainly not least, we´re going to deal with one issue in particular that has longstanding consequences: Commitment.

In some ways, commitment could be viewed as being connected to desire, but there are subtle differences to it, especially when it comes to a cause such as weight loss.

Imagine this situation: You´ve been at your weight loss regime for about 5 months now, and armed with the right mindset, you´ve been able to hit practically every goal that you set yourself.

Initially, you´d thought that you wanted to lose 20 kg, but after 5 months, you´ve already lost 10 and you feel that you look great – a lot better than you used to anyway!

At that point, your commitment to the weight loss cause is bound to be tested. After all, you´ve slogged your way through 5 whole months of a weight loss regime, and have obtained great results from it.

Why not stop? Take a break, relax, and enjoy yourself?

Although it may seem like a perfectly reasonable thing to want to take five, and despite the fact that you may have every intention of going back to your weight loss regime after, say, a break of about a month, the truth is this:

Once you stop a weight loss regime, it is much, much harder to get back to it.

Not only will you need to re-attain the desire to lose weight, but you´ll also have to re-equip yourself mentally for the process. Then, you´ll also have to start right back at square one of your weight loss program, and work yourself up to where you were previously.

To cut a long story short: It is going to be a pretty daunting prospect.

And that is the reason why so many people who ´quit´ midway end up never returning to their weight loss regime, despite having every intention to do so!

Right here and now, you´re going to make absolutely certain that you don´t end up going down that road. And to do that, you´re going to have to commit. Not just to losing weight in general, but specifically to attaining that dream of yours.

You know – the dream that most everyone has of achieving their final target weight!

All said and done, that should be your very final goal, and it should be the one that you´re fully committed towards achieving. Anything less and you risk compromising, and not getting to be the weight that you deserve to be.

With that in mind, you need to constantly keep that at the forefront of you mind. Do not settle for less. Do not tell yourself that you´ll ´take a break´, until, that is, you finally hit that goal.

And even once you do, you should commit yourself towards maintaining what you have attained, so that you never end up having to do it all over again!

Building an everlasting commitment is a case of sheer willpower, determination, and the desire to truly achieve your dreams. And now that you´ve learnt practically everything that there is to know about building the right mindset, there are few things that can stand between you and that dream that you´ve had.

Thus, with just a few final words, we´ll leave you to go out and put to practice all that you´ve discovered!

Last Say on the Right Mindset

You know the theory. You know how it all fits together. And most importantly, you know why it is absolutely imperative that you attain the right mindset to optimize your weight loss!

Over the course of this guide, we´ve gone over a wide range of topics, from:

1.Some of the pitfalls commonly faced when attempting to lose weight

2.How desire affects your weight loss in a huge way

3.A look at goals, and how they can be used to help you

4.Briefly discovering how choices of the right path can be made

5.Coming up with a plan of action

6.Handling stress

7.Engaging in positive thinking

8.Committing to seeing things through to the finish

All of that sound familiar to you? It should!

With each of those topics, we´ve gone over, from top to bottom, the mindset that you´re going to need to build.

So what are you waiting for? Go out there and start to apply what you´ve learnt already.

Before you know it, you could be looking at a leaner version of yourself!

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