The Psychology of Weight Loss
Our eating habits are strongly influenced by the emotions we feel. Our thoughts and will power play a significant role in deciding the amount we eat as well as the success and failure of our dieting expeditions.
Here’s how emotions affect our hunger pangs –
* Anger, depression, anxiety, boredom, and loneliness are triggers for reaching out to the cookie jar.
* You may wish to dull the pain of a confrontation or wash away the memories of being put down by your boss with a jumbo milk shake.
* Emotional hunger also manifests itself when you take food to overcome the anxieties of a close relationship and to avoid thoughts of rejection.
* If self-doubts plague you and you eat to push them down then you are a victim of your moods that push you to eat in excess.
* You may be using food to fill the gaps caused by the unfulfillment of some basic needs such as trust and a sense of belonging in a relationship.
* Often deprivations and hardships experienced as a child are strong triggers to an uncontrolled eating episode.
* You can also view eating as a means of asserting yourself. Nobody tells YOU what to eat!
* You may also take recourse to eating in order to avoid a challenging situation; either at home or at work.
In order to get the most out of your body from a diet you need to first get the most out of your mind. This is how you do it.
Start with a positive attitude. It has a lot to do with the final outcome, more so than the popularity of the health club, the drive of your trainer, and any miracle foods that you may be banking on. Do not whinge or rationalize lapses in your commitment. It will only distance you from your objective. If you have it in your head to do what it takes to achieve success, you will outdo yourself and achieve superlative results regardless of any shortcomings in genes or resources.
Plan for the long term. Treat getting into shape as an event forever and not just a temporary activity to lose a few inches. Equate wellness with a healthy lifestyle. If it involves making some tough decisions then please take those tough decisions. These will most probably be about your self-control, eating habits, and exercise routines.
Be practical and push yourself to achieve those practical aims. Do not start something that you may not be able to finish. Follow through on your decisions. If you become a member of a health club then do go there every day. Complete the entire course of a diet or an exercise plan; do not give up mid way.
There is never a “best moment” to start exercising. The best time is NOW. Do not procrastinate. You have to will yourself to achieve what you wish. Things “hardly” attained are better retained and you owe this not only to yourself but also to your loved ones. Take control of the situation and do not make excuses or shift blame for never being able to get started. Get mentally prepared for some tiredness and inconvenience. The soreness factor is largely a function of your own perception.
Accentuate the positive and focus on what you are gaining. Giving up those cheese and chocolate cakes is actually adding years to your life.
Remember that a target, any target is achieved by focusing on the final deliverable at all times. It is impossible to stay highly motivated all the times and the process will appear tedious at times but do not yield to the temporary relaxations. You do not have forever to get started. Work on it from now and enjoy the fruits forever.
Motivating yourself to lose weight
Motivation for anything worthwhile does not come easy, especially if it involves sustained effort over a period of time. Motivation can get you started but you need to keep at it to succeed and for this you need to determinedly follow a plan.
The philosophy holds true for your weight loss efforts as well. The biggest motivation killer is procrastination followed by the fear of failure. We are creatures of habit and it takes some doing to get out of a set routine, especially if it is a very comfortable set routine that we are following. To break out of the procrastination mould, will yourself to work towards a weight loss objective once you have charted out a path. The fear of failure is linked to procrastination. As we delay the beginning of a process and fail to get into a regular schedule, the fear of failure starts to grip us as the target date approaches and we don’t have the desired weight loss to show for our efforts. This in turn leads us to dump our efforts and get back to being our old selves.
Motivation also depends upon our definition and perception of our weight loss objectives. If we are going to treat weight loss as a necessary burden our approach will be more than just tinged with negativity. It will be half-hearted and the results or the lack of it will show at the end of the time frame. Instead, if we choose to consider our weight loss regimen as a part of a lifestyle that is geared towards health and being disease free then our outlook too changes accordingly and saying no to that bag of chips or pulling up your socks for that early morning jog is no longer a drag.
Keep in mind that you are going through a period of temporary discomfort because the benefits far outweigh the present inconvenience. It’s as simple as that. Whenever you feel dispirited remind yourself that the benefits that await you will far outweigh any pain that you may feel now. So, be prepared to sweat it out in the mornings.
Information and desire will have to go hand in hand if you wish to continuously maintain a high level of inspiration. Information comes from external sources such as reading success stories that can give you a push.
You could consider being a part of a group where you can feed off the successes of one another. Add variations to your routine so that boredom does not creep in. Follow different routes when going for a walk. Track your progress and set benchmarks. Maybe keep a training journal that can help you tick off milestones as you achieve them. A great way to stay motivated is by reducing the workload specific to weight loss activities, what this means is that you increase the amount of incidental work that you can do to lose weight.
How do celebrities keep fit?
Denizens of celebland are under ever increasing pressure to look good and keep fit. Well, at least, what they or their fitness gurus consider is “fit”. Often mortals like us may recoil at their definitions of “good looks” and “fitness” but that does not hinder our fascination with these paragons of ethereal beauty. It also has something to do with the bizarre extent to which the celebs will go to; their determination and often their naiveté a source of inspiration for some and amusement for others.
Celebrities are always stressed to maintain their brand image and in an age where image is everything, a body-image counts for a lot, a lot of dollars that is. The only reason they will endure fat is if its making them money, otherwise it’s off with the fat!
Here’s a look at what some of our favorite celebrities do to maintain their figures
Julia Roberts, she of the million watt smile, is for many the epitome of the yummy mummy. This 40 plus lady is a mother of three and one of the most in-demand actresses in Hollywood. At 5’9” and a slender frame, Julia by her own admission is not a diet control freak, rather she is one who “eats like a cow and could eat all day”. However, she does have a personal trainer who performs the very important job of keeping “sinful foods” out of Julia’s fridge. Julia trusts BOSU for keeping her butt firm. BOSU, by the way, stands for Both Sides Up. It’s a fitness board cum exercise board. Julia follows the Perricone Prescription diet that stresses protein and prohibits carrots, bananas, watermelon, flour, raisins and corn.
Jessica Simpson, the one whose curves run endlessly but her acting abilities run the gamut from A to B, has managed to achieve what all women hope for. She has managed to lose weight without losing her curves. Jessica had earlier tried the South Beach Diet but this time round it was the 5 Factor Diet, which she decided to favor. Jessica had to make some tough decisions like foregoing the bread baskets bought to the breakfast table and refusing free desserts bought to her table. She had to make do with rudimentary food items like grilled chicken, seared fish, broccoli and asparagus. Apparently Jessica couldn’t sum up the will to do all this alone and so she had her personal trainer stay with her for three months so he could do the ordering at food time.
Janet Jackson, she who gave the English language a new phrase – wardrobe malfunction, went into a self-imposed hibernation after the infamous episode. During the period her weight increased to 180 pounds. However, Janet came back in shape by following what is now known as Janet Jackson diet. In a period of four months Janet lost around 60 pounds and her astonishing weight loss has given her the idea for a new weight loss book and video. Janet ate four to five portions of gourmet food especially thought out for her. She managed to maintain the required ratio of calorie deficiency by going on an only-liquid diet for some time and following a rigorous exercise regimen that included reverse lunges, good mornings, leg presses, push ups triceps super sets, later at raises, kick boxing, basket ball, etc.
The above mentioned celebs followed what the rest of us can identify with if we tried a little hard. However, there are others whose dieting regimens and ideas make us doubt their sanity and their gullibility in giving into these diets. Generally, most fad diets are exercises in silliness with quick results and quicker weight gains, however there are some diet ideas that truly take the cake or make that a wheat-bran cake with skimmed milk.
One would have to place the baby food diet at the very top of the list of bizarre diets. Top marquee names such as ReeseWitherspoon and Jennifer Aniston are devoted to this outlandish diet wherein you substitute good wholesome food or whatever else that you are eating with baby food. You can’t think of a more childish way to get malnourished. It’s as gimmicky as it can get. Feeding adults with a balanced diet, balanced for babies that is.
A great diet for those who are fat and fans of maple syrup. Beyonce has shown the way with the maple syrup diet albeit at a great risk to her body’s balance of potassium, sodium, and other vital elements. You cannot beat the maple syrup diet for simplicity. Beyonce apparently lived on maple syrup, water, and cayenne pepper for 14 straight days. She ended up losing around 13 kg or 2 stones for her role in Dreamgirls.
Another silly diet with a silly name – the one-hour TV diet has its own set of votaries including Sarah Jessica Parker and Jennifer Aniston; however the most famous would have to be Jordan who lost around 2 stones of fat post delivery. The crux of the diet is that you cannot watch more than one hour of TV in a day.
Perhaps the most cruel and tortuous of all diets, this one has been famously endured by Geri Halliwell. Geri took vitamin injections to keep her weight down after her other attempts including the Atkins diet had failed. A desirable or perhaps not-so-desirable side effect of her vitamin shots was that Geri felt hornier than normal most of the time. At the height of her fame she was surviving on half a plate of noodles and some boiled carrots.
