Tuesday, January 20, 2009

How to Lose Weight without Starving – part 1: The Mindset

Twenty two years ago, I was overweight. Growing up, I was a skinny girl. However when I moved from Asia to the US, I gained twenty five pounds in three months! I came in the fall, by Christmas, I was already chubby. At the time, I lived with my older brother and he made fun of my weight every single day.

For 2 years, I struggled with my weight, I tried diet tea, fat reducing crème, slim fast, diet patch and I read over a dozen diet books and nothing worked!

If you are overweight, I know how you feel. It can be frustrating. However, please understand that just because you have excess weight right now, it doesn’t mean that you are going to be fat forever. Don’t put a label on yourself. Many people are nice to other people but they are mean to themselves.

We talk to ourselves all the time and sometimes we say bad things to ourselves. When I say or do something wrong, I’d call myself “Stupid” and I will proceed to remember all the stupid things that I have done in the past 20 years!

Usually, when we fail from our expectation, we say bad things to ourselves. We even label ourselves: stupid, loser, procrastinator and that will not help us to solve our problem because we will feel more depressed and helpless. And when we are depressed we eat more because our bodies feel the need to increase the “happy hormone” in our brain which is called serotonin. Sweets increase our serotonin level so blaming ourselves rarely work when it comes to permanent weight loss.

We have to realize that nobody is perfect; everybody failed at certain things in their life. Even the people that we admired the most have to constantly work to improve themselves. Every single day is a new day and all we can do is to take a single step toward our goal.

If losing weight is part of your New Year’s resolutions, understand that the most important step toward a permanent weight loss is the right mental attitude. As a weight consultant, I found it fascinating that I can give the same directions to several people and those who have positive self images; lost weight in a short period of time while those who labeled themselves fat have a hard time losing weight.

You see people act consistent with the label that we gave to ourselves. So if you or the people around you called you fatty, this year, get a new empowering label! Label yourself beauty, healthy or sexy! Whenever you see yourself in the mirror, be nice and gentle to yourself; look for your wonderful qualities, maybe you have a wonderful set of eyes or a nice smile. You are a beauty in the making, a diamond in the rough and in 2009, you will continue to polish that diamond so the sparkle will shine thru, brighter and brighter.

Happy New Year!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hey guys just wanted to share my experience with you guys, I followed the instructions on www.lessenfat.com and it helped me alot. I lost 30 pounds in 45 days. I highly recommend you guys try it.