Weight Loss - How to Gain Control of Self-Sabotage

How often have you exceeded the day's caloric goal or if you aren't counting calories, simply overeaten and then said to yourself "I already blew it so I might as well eat what I want the rest of the day, because tomorrow - it all ends! I'll just start over". Following that statement, do you ever find yourself going on an all-out eating binge?

This mental trap will not only sabotage your weight loss efforts but will most likely cause you to gain weight rather than lose it. Although you aren't alone in this type of self-sabotage, understand that if you want to be successful and not a statistic, you must gain control over it. Most of the people who fall into the "tomorrow" trap are those whose weight continuously fluctuates. Not only does this type of thinking cause discouragement and frustration, but it can also lead to serious health issues.

So how do we avoid the "I'll just start over tomorrow" trap?

First, I want to emphasize that you should not view weight loss as a "diet". Yes, it's very important to take in less fat and calories as part of your overall weight loss plan, so essentially you are making a diet change. However your attitude should be set on a "lifestyle change" and not a short term change that you view as deprivation. Once you've planted this firmly in your mind, it will make your fitness journey a lot more pleasant.

What's the key?

If you engross yourself in becoming educated about the human body and how food and exercise impact your overall health and well-being, you will undoubtedly be able to slip into this lifestyle change with a lot more ease and develop a desire to exercise and feed your body the right foods. Once you've developed a "health and fitness" mindset, you will be far less likely to binge eat or overeat in general. You may even find yourself viewing the foods you used to love as undesirable. Yes, really.

It's not always simple to change the way our minds respond to certain situations because most of us are on autopilot. Our subconscious minds have been programmed, through external stimuli, how to respond to everything we encounter on a day to day basis. Because it's our subconscious mind that does most of the driving, we usually just go along for the ride. Does this mean that we're helpless to the poor programming of our own subconscious minds? Not necessarily. We can reprogram our thoughts and beliefs through repetition of new thoughts, new behaviors and various other techniques.

If your mind has been programed to believe that weight loss is difficult; that you are being deprived; that it's something unpleasant which keeps you from what you really want, you're going to struggle every step of the way and find ways to sabotage your efforts. Alternatively, if you retrain your mind to desire a healthy lifestyle and view exercise and eating healthy, vitamin enriched foods as something enjoyable and refreshing, you're going to have an entirely different experience. You will effortlessly begin to lose the weight. I say effortlessly, not because you won't have to take action, but because the struggle is in the resistance and if you aren't resisting, it will seem effortless.

How do I reprogram my mind?

I have personally found hypnosis to be an incredibly powerful and effective tool in speeding up the reprogramming process. I've used it in many areas of my life where negative beliefs caused resistance, including weight loss. Hypnosis bypasses the conscious mind and feeds the subconscious mind new, empowering, self-serving thoughts, causing a change in habits almost immediately. if you would like more information on weight loss hypnosis, visit the website listed at the end of this article.

Consistency will also reprogram your mind over time. By saturating yourself with educational material on health and fitness daily, you are retraining your brain to think of a healthy lifestyle change as pleasant and desirable as opposed to unpleasant and causing deprivation.

Change your mind, change your body. Many people have successfully accomplished this and so can you.