Have you tried every diet, weight loss or exercise program with little or no result, or perhaps you had great results, but before you knew it, all the weight was back where it started. Well did you know your mind can have as much impact on your weight as diet and exercise? Doesn’t sound quite right does it? Well imagine this... you’re about to go on a diet, and going around in your mind are thoughts like these:
• what’s the point in dieting, you’ll only fail like you did last time;
• diet, you can’t go on a diet, you’ve got a big party to go to in a couple of weeks, you may as well wait until after that;
• I hate diets, nothing but lettuce and boring vegetables to eat for weeks;
• I don’t know why I bother, everyone in our family is big... it’s just who we are.

If those were the thoughts you were thinking, how long do you think you would stick at a diet, and how successful do you think you would be? What about if you were thinking these thoughts instead:
• well I know fad diets don’t work as they haven’t worked for me in the past, so I think it’s time to make some gradual changes and to start to living a healthy lifestyle that I can maintain for life;
• I’ve got a party to go to in a couple of weeks, how great will it be if I can fit back into that favorite dress that I used to look stunning in;
• there are some great low fat and slimmer’s recipe books out there, what a great opportunity to learn some new light and healthy meal options that will help me look and feel great;
• wouldn’t it be great if I lost weight and got healthier and became a role model for the rest of the family so that they’d get healthier too.

Which set of thoughts do you think would help you to take action? Easy isn’t it, of course it’s the second set of positive thoughts. Indeed, research has found that if you really want to be successful in life, you have to work on the internal factors, such as your thoughts and beliefs, just as much as working on external factors like diet and exercise. In fact for some people, if they don’t work on their thinking, they will never be able to create change, while for others, they may be able to achieve some success, but they will never be able to maintain it. This is why some people just can’t seem to lose weight, while others can lose weight, but they tend to put it straight back on, which is the yo-yo dieter or the weight loss rollercoaster you may be familiar with.
If your weight loss program doesn’t work on changing your mindset, you’re not addressing the whole problem, and you’re not likely to create lasting change. In fact, the old saying “you are what you eat” has now become “you are what you think and feel”. So when you discover how to take charge of your mind as well, you can more easily achieve the results you desire, and create permanent change! Below are the seven secret keys to changing your thinking, so you can think and live slim, permanently.

1) First, you need to be honest with yourself about your current situation and how you would really like to be. Often people are in denial about how overweight or unfit they really are, or how unhealthy their diet is, and they may downplay the impact that it is having on their life. Usually they do this as a means of self protection, because they may not know how to change or even believe that they can. However, until you acknowledge just what your current situation is, and that you are not happy with that situation, you won’t be in a position to find solutions. For many people, the trigger that motivates their search for change is when they have seen photos or video of themselves and the evidence is so clear they can no longer hide from the truth. So be honest, get on the scales and see what you weigh, if your clothes are getting tighter admit it to yourself, and give yourself an honest appraisal of your diet. If you are not happy with what you discover, start thinking about how you’d like to be instead, as when you know where you are and where you want to be, then you can start to plan a course of action!

2) If you are to change your current situation, you have to believe that you can, and to do that you have to take responsibility for your results. You have to decide that whatever circumstances have stopped you from being as fit or as thin as you’d like to be, they aren’t going to stop you anymore, and then come up with a way to overcome those circumstances. For instance, if you tell yourself you just don’t have the time, take an honest look at your day and if you are committed to changing, you’ll be able to find some time; whether you have to get up a bit earlier, skip watching TV, or walk in your lunch hour. Next, think about those things you’ve been told throughout life, or that you’ve told yourself, which you might be using to justify why you are overweight or unfit. For example, perhaps you have always been told that ‘you take after the chubby side of the family.’ If something like this is what you were told, you might have an internal belief that being overweight is who you are. If this negative belief isn’t changed, you may be able to lose weight, but you’ll find it almost impossible to keep it off, so you might experience rollercoaster or yo-yo type results over time. So develop some new empowering beliefs about yourself and your ability to take control of your life.

3) In life, you tend to get what you focus on, so it is important to focus on what you want. This means that if you want to lose weight, you need to focus on what you want, such as how much you want to weigh, how slim you want to be, or how much energy you will have when you have lost weight. This is much better than focusing on what you don’t want, such as not wanting to be overweight, not wanting to be fat, or not wanting to be tired all the time. After all if you get what you focus on, and you focus on being overweight, you’re actually going to get more of the same. It’s important therefore to first know what you want, and then you need to take control of your thinking, and look forward, stay positive and focus on how you want to be.

4) So now you know that you get what you focus on in life. Well your focus tends to be determined by what is really important to you in life, so you need to know just what that is. Ask yourself how important your health, fitness and appearance have been up until now. If you’re not happy with any of these areas of your life, I’m guessing they haven’t been important enough to you, and so if you want to see an improvement in any of these areas, then you need to make them more important. For instance, if you’ve been putting all of your time and energy into making money, then it’s probably not surprising that you haven’t found the time to exercise. So decide now to make your health and fitness more of a priority in your life.

5) Having clear goals with set deadlines provides us with motivation and direction to go out and do what is necessary to achieve those goals. If you have a vague goal to lose weight, and you haven’t got a specific goal weight in mind or a deadline attached, you could lose 1kg next week, next month or next year, and you will have reached your goal. But is that what you really had in mind? Without a specific or measurable aspect to the goal, how will you know when you have reached it? If you don’t have a deadline, then there is no urgency to do what is required to get to your goal, as you can always put it off until tomorrow (or next week, next month, or next year). In comparison, if you have a clear goal, such as to lose 20kg and get back into a favorite outfit by your next birthday, then you can break it down into manageable stages or short-term goals, such as to lose 1kg a week. Then you can look at each short-term goal, and work out what actions you need to take to achieve it, such as to exercise at least 3 times a week.

6) Understand your eating habits, and how you developed them, and you can more easily take control and achieve your goals. Most of us have grown up and developed particular associations with foods. For instance, in most cultures, celebrations and festive occasions are usually associated with food and alcohol. Likewise, if someone we know isn’t well or is feeling a bit down, many of us would try and make them feel better by giving chocolates or other treats. It is little wonder then that if we’re not feeling great, or we are unhappy with some aspect of our life, we turn to food for our own comfort, or as something to look forward to. In a similar manner, many people use food for other reasons that have nothing to do with nourishment, such as going to get a snack so you can have a break from work. So if you become aware of the real reasons why you snack when you’re not really hungry or why you have cravings for certain foods, you can make a conscious choice to do something different, which is more in alignment with your goals.

7) Decide to be happy right here, right now, regardless of your weight, fitness level or physical appearance. Happiness is a choice, and while we can’t always control what happens to us, we can control how we react, and the extent to which we will let outside forces influence our emotions. You see the outer you is a reflection of the inner you, and it’s only once you’ve allowed yourself to feel happy, confident, and worthy that you’ll weigh your ideal weight. So, decide to be happy and to accept yourself as you are, right now, while you head down the path toward your goals, AND instead of turning to food for happiness, go on a search to find and do the other things that bring you joy in life.