New Year’s Resolutions And Natural Weight Loss
January 4th, 2008 Posted by: Dr. George Best
It’s that time of year when millions of people resolve to make this year the year that they finally lose weight. Natural weight loss plans, diet pills and potions, exercise equipment and videos, and gym memberships are purchased at record rates during January every year. By February, most weight loss resolutions have fallen by the wayside and have given way to the return of poor eating habits and a lack of exercise.
What happens in that few weeks? So many start out with high motivation and the best of intentions to follow through on their weight loss plans, but very few maintain that motivation long enough to lose even a few pounds, much less meet their long-term weight loss goals.
The problem is, our minds play tricks on us. Sure, we want to lose weight, but we want to continue to eat the wrong foods and we’d much rather watch television than exercise. So, we start to weasel out of our goal to lose weight. “Just one donut won’t hurt.” “I can skip today’s workout and I’ll do extra exercise tomorrow.” “I’m too tired to make a salad. I’ll just order a pizza tonight and I’ll get back on my diet tomorrow.” It becomes next to impossible to be successful with a natural weight loss plan when you cheat every day.
You see, our minds have been programmed to want certain foods and to want to engage in certain unhealthy behaviors. Our minds have also been programmed to believe that healthy food tastes bad, or that exercise is painful. The good news is that although most of that programming happened unconsciously, there are ways we can take control and consciously re-program our minds to work with us on our weight loss goals rather than to sabotage our efforts.
Several methods exist to do this, ranging from techniques from Anthony Robbins, the Sedona Method, Emotional Freedom Technique, and others. With a little time and effort, you can change your thoughts so that they support your diet and exercise goals and help you avoid the bad habits. By working on your mind as well as your body, natural weight loss can be achieved.
