Positive Thinking Is Vital When Changing Your Lifestyle

I ‘ve learnt that it’s never too late to shave decades off your biological age and lose pounds of fat by making some lifestyle changes. Note the use of the words ‘lifestyle changes’, rather than a quick, temporary two week fix.

During the Body For Life Challenge, I realised that the secret is to change my way of thinking WHILE making changes to my lifestyle. If you try to change your life and habits without considering your mindset, the changes aren’t going to stick around for very long.

If you see yourself as a woman who’s past her prime, ‘over the hill’ or just plain unattractive, then that’s your reality. Your emotional state will be affected by your beliefs, and you’ll choose courses of action to back up those beliefs.

I’ll give you an example. Pam has been watching what she eats and going for walks around her neighborhood. She’s starting to feel pretty good about herself.

Last night, she met friends for a meal in her favorite restaurant. One thing led to another and she indulged in everything that was put before her. Pizza, french fries… oh and that sticky date pudding with the butterscotch sauce was awesome!

Bleary eyed, and against her better judgment, she steps on the scale. She’s shocked to see an overnight weight gain of 5 pounds! How can this be? She doesn’t look that much different, but the scales tell her otherwise. She feels fatter than ever.

It doesn’t matter that most of that weight gain is probably due to water retention from eating such a big meal and bloating because of hormonal changes. All she can focus on is that number on the scale and how it makes her feel.

She catches sight of herself in the bathroom mirror. She’s convinced that the 5 pound scale gain looks more like 10 pounds.

Her thinking takes a familiar downward spiral. ‘I’ll never lose weight … It’s too late to do anything about it anyway ….. what’s the point of exercising …I’m sick of dieting and depriving myself…I wonder if that chocolate is still in the cupboard …’

Reaching for that ‘sweet goodness’, she triggers a binge that lasts the rest of the day. It’s a pattern of thinking that affects Pam’s entire life and her self-esteem.

She wakes up the next morning feeling even worse than she did yesterday. She’s ‘completely ruined’ her healthy new plan, so she ‘might as well have fried eggs and bacon’ for breakfast. It’s the start of a slippery slope.

This is unfortunate, because Pam had started to make excellent progress by eating healthily for most of the time, and exercising. But she hadn’t changed her way of thinking enough to sustain that lifestyle change for the long term. That number on the scale dictated her mood and gave her a negative focus. This influenced her subsequent actions, which quickly spiraled out of control.

Let’s face it, life happens to everyone. Thanksgiving, Christmas and birthdays come around. The scale doesn’t always bring good news. Maybe you can’t exercise for 2 weeks because you get the flu. A negative, defeatist mindset will hinder your new lifestyle before it’s even had a chance to take roots. You’ll give up too easily.

On the other hand, a more positive outlook will help you bounce back from things that happen in every day life. Note that I say ‘more positive’. I don’t care what anyone says, no-one thinks positively all the time.

We all have our bad and good days. Sometimes our mood changes by the hour. We’ll still have moments where we have to fight negative thoughts, especially when our hormones are playing up. Learn to recognize these phases and make allowances for yourself.

If you slip up and give in to a chocolate splurge, then so what? You’re not perfect, no-one is. If you get up the next day and go back to healthy habits, then the ‘damage’ is minimal. It’s only when you blow temporary set-backs out of proportion that they become a problem.

Remember, you’ll be ready to tackle obstacles and change your life for the better if your overall way of thinking is more positive than negative.

Let’s take a look at Amy. She’s also been out the previous night and boy, did she love it. Mexican food is the best and everyone’s got to let their hair down every now and again!

Against better judgment, she hops on the scales. Wow! Can you really put on that much weight after one meal?? How can that be?

Rather than beat herself up about it, she decides to go for a walk. She’s feeling a bit groggy anyway and the fresh air will do her good. Plus she’ll burn off some of the extra calories she ate last night. She probably won’t be able to burn all of them off but it’s better than nothing!
On her walk she decides to get rid of the scales. It’ll be hard, because she’s kind of addicted to them, but she read in a magazine last week that the scales don’t matter. It’s how your clothes fit, and how your measurements are. Plus, she doesn’t like how the scales have the power to make her feel bad about herself.

She catches sight of herself in a shop mirror. Hmmm, she really could do with losing a fair amount of weight, but she’s looking really good in her new top and her hair is so shiny!
She’s been watching what she eats, without being obsessive, and she’s starting walking with a neighbor for at least half an hour almost every day. Last week she had her first session with a personal trainer at the local gym.

She’s never really been one for regular exercise and wasn’t sure about starting now. But she’s noticed her clothes don’t fit so well any more and her energy levels could be better. The walking seems to be helping her feel brighter and more cheerful.

Amy could have allowed that number on the scale to upset her, like Pam, leading to a downward spiral of binge eating. But instead of ruminating and allowing negative thoughts to bring her down, she quickly took positive action by going for a walk.

On her walk, she made another constructive decision to get rid of her scales. When she catches sight of herself in the shop window, she acknowledges the fact that she wants to lose weight, but at the same time she recognizes things about her that are attractive.

It really looks like Amy has genuinely succeeded in changing her lifestyle by nurturing a positive way of thinking.

Remember, your thoughts ARE your reality. That’s how a generally positive mindset can help you, by making you feel more optimistic and hopeful. It has a huge impact on the choices you make and the actions you take on a daily basis.