Can’t Lose Weight? Change Your Mind Not Your Diet

Struggling with weight loss is never easy. To arrive at the point in which you’re opting to lose weight takes a certain amount of discomfort and self-awareness. Although, the desire can also come about as a result of societal guilt or pressure to maintain a specific image, or reach a goal. However it occurs, the drive usually stems from a place, at least in part—of shame. Could this be the problem when despite all efforts to be efficient with weight loss, it’s still such an untapped challenge for some?

When Problems with Losing Weight Occur

If you’re someone who’s been diligent with your weight loss efforts and are experiencing trouble meeting your goals, here are a few things to consider:

• Everyone’s body is different and tends to change with age and environmental factors.
• Goals are GR8, but sometimes unrealistic when it comes to time frame, things you’re not willing to give up or try, etc.
• Plateaus happen, sometimes you need to keep trying different things.
• It might be beneficial to enlist the help of a professional in some cases.

But, if none of these seem up the alley of what could be standing in your way of losing weight, it may be all in your head. The way you think might be the very thing preventing your weight loss. This is not an attack, don’t worry. This is not another place on the internet telling you that you’re doing it all wrong and that you need to be “positive,” though, that might be part of it.

Could Your Mind Unlock the Secret to Losing Weight?

They won’t sell ya’ this one in an infomercial. But trust me when I say, you’ve got the tools you need to propel yourself into successful weight loss in hand. The way you think is partly choice, and somewhat conditioning. Conditioning too can be a choice—but it is most often not.

Your specific conditioning when it comes to the way you feel about your body, what it should be, and why it’s not that, is a product. All of these conclusions that you inevitably draw come from your perceptions. Those perceptions are shaped by your experience, the experience of others, and what you gather of all of it.

Remember, the mind is a muscle, and the way that you train it matters. It could be true that sustainable weight loss must first begin with losing the weight of what you place in your head. Expectations and pressures from others are heavy, friends.

How to Change Your Mind and Meet your Goals

Let’s say you make an effort to identify with the body positivity movement. Yet, something doesn’t feel quite right. Maybe, it feels like something you want or should feel, but struggle to. Everyone struggles with being who they wish they were, and it’s worth considering that this struggle doesn’t need to occur.

Instead, rework whatever system in your brain that tells you that you are somehow not enough as is, or perhaps too much. I get that this kind of advice can sound a little woo-woo-well-that’s-GR8-but-what-does-that-even-mean, to some. So, here are some practical ways to do it:

Incorporate Intuitive Eating

Avoid extreme restriction as it can lead to unhealthy eating habits. Instead, allow yourself the foods you want to eat in moderation, aka intuitive eating. Don’t force yourself to eat when you’re not feeling it, and don’t force yourself to stop if you are. (Consult with a dietician or professional for more information on how to do this effectively).

Trade Body Positivity for Body Neutrality

No one is happy about everything all the time, which is unrealistic and unsustainable. Your body is no different. Instead, learn more about the body neutrality movement, which involves being compassionate with your body through all its stages and phases.

Train Your Mind First, Then Your Body

Come to the understanding that you cannot dive deep into changes in the body healthily without adjusting your mindset. Your mind must be primed from a place of self-acceptance to make positive change. Otherwise, you’re operating as a result of negativity, pressure, and other things that inevitably make you feel poorly about yourself if you cannot deliver.

Please know that while they may seem simple, these are complex things that can take a lot of time and reinforcement to master. The good news is, you can make it happen if you want to.