Attitude Adjustment

The Wt. Loss Minute by Linda Spangle, RN, MA www.100DaysChallenge.com Great idea: Get more mindful Are you in need of an attitude adjustment? If you struggle with your weight, you know that your mental attitude and commitment to your plan are critical to your success. Your body does the actions, but your mind holds you on track. One way to improve your mental attitude is to create a clear picture of yourself being successful. People never win a beauty contest by focusing on their faults. Instead, they tell themselves they look great, and then they walk the runway with confidence and poise. To help yourself focus on success, take the 'beauty contest' approach to managing your weight. Stand or sit tall, take a deep breath and notice the immediate difference in your energy. Tell yourself you are totally capable of losing and maintaining your weight. Then walk the runway of your day with a positive, confident attitude. Stay mindful Your mental approach can also make a difference in how much you eat. If you slip into mindlessness around eating, you can take in a lot of extra calories and never even know it. And when you don't acknowledge how much you eat, it's easy to fool yourself into thinking that you're staying on your diet. At some point, you get on the scale and can't figure out how you gained 20 pounds. I recently visited a call center at an insurance company where rows of sales people sat in short-walled cubicles. In between calls, many of the workers would flip up the mouthpiece on their headset, then eat from bags of food they kept in their top desk drawer. Handful after handful of chips, candy, cookies, trail mix, etc. went into the mouths of the staff members. Break times centered around the 'potluck' table that held noodle casseroles and homemade cheesecake and brownies. The company frequently had contests for best dessert, best enchiladas, and other wonderful creations. The sad thing was that nearly every person in this call center was overweight, many of them to a severe level of obesity. Yet many of these people seemed to push food into their mouths without even looking at what they were eating. If you struggle with mindless eating, consider using these tools to change your approach. * Focus on the details - be aware of the tiny nuances of a food, including the texture, seasoning, and mouth sensation as you eat it. You may discover that you don't enjoy some things as much as you thought you did. * Pay attention - notice what you're eating, including whether you're getting some decent fuel with your food or whether you're asking your body to run on junk. * Slow down - set a timer for 20 minutes and make your meal or snack last that long. For more ideas on staying mindful, see Day 21 in '100 Days of Weight Loss.' Know others who've got a minute? Forward this ezine and brighten their day. Copyright Linda Spangle, 2006. #1002, Weight Loss for Life, Inc. 5023 W. 120th Ave. #183, Broomfield, CO 80020 Contact: [email protected] www.100DaysChallenge.com 303-452-1545 or 1-800-298-302