The Right Attitude for Weight Loss
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Your attitude can determine whether or not you will be successful at changing your eating habits, losing weight and keeping it off, and improving your health. So what's your attitude? Take a look at these scenarios and see if you need an attitude adjustment to put your thinking in line with your weight loss goals:
- If you think you were born to be fat then you should know that a USDA study found that women who think their gene pool regulates their waist size are more likely to be heavy. Your genes do have an impact on your weight. However, it's the everyday choices you make that determine how large you become.
Attitude Adjustment: Start thinking, "The food and lifestyle choices I make today determine my shape." Put yourself in situations where you are likely to be successful in choosing healthful foods until you build a history of success. Then gradually increase the difficulty.
- Do you hear yourself saying, "I'll never lose this weight!" If so, you may be setting your expectations too high. If you think you need to get back to your high school weight, no wonder you're feeling overwhelmed! Research shows that losing 7-10% of your weight will improve your health and dramatically decrease your risk for type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
Attitude Adjustment: Learn how to set challenging but reasonable goals that will lead to long term weight loss success.
- Are you always thinking, "I don't eat much, and I still can't lose weight!" Just remember that you must take into account every morsel of food and drink that passes your lips.
Attitude Adjustment: Work with the facts. Become familiar with using a food diary for a few days. Count the calories you consume and match them up with the calories you burn. This way you can tell if you have more calories coming in than going out, and it can help you understand why you aren't losing weight.
So are you "walking the walk" or "talking the walk"?
Healthy regards,
Megan Porter, RD
