All In The Mind
The BEFORE-DURING-AFTER ... January 28, 2010 9:07 am THE BEFORE-DURING-AFTER
JOURNAL
Do you often have trouble finding the motivation to stick to your exercise and nutrition goals? If so, then you might not be looking in the right place.
Q-So, why should the distinction between extrinsic and intrinsic motivation matter to you?
The good news is that you don’t have to wait for intrinsic motivation to appear on its own, magically, or create it by sheer force of will. In fact, waiting for it to happen and trying to force it are sure ways to make sure it doesn’t improve at all. You have everything you need for intrinsic motivation right now. You just need to let yourself experience this fact. This will help you reach and maintain a healthy weight, and reduce the amount of misery, frustration, and suffering you experience along the way. Here’s one good tool you can use to get yourself moving in this direction.
Chances are, you’ll notice that you feel better when you stick to your goals and plans, and that the short-lived pleasures of eating that treat or skipping your exercise session are quickly replaced by feelings of guilt and frustration. You’ll also spot some consistent patterns that can be altered with small changes in your daily routine, like doing your exercise as soon as you get home from work instead of waiting until after dinner. These small changes can help you tap into your internal motivation.
Quick, what?s the difference... January 28, 2010 8:25 am Any goal-setting guru will tell you that goals are dreams that you write down and track. Why? By writing down your goals, you're creating a "to do" list for your life, which is a powerful way to commit to achieving your dreams. Tracking your progress heightens the commitment, helping you see what’s important, identify pitfalls, find trends, and celebrate successes. You wouldn’t take a class or play a sport without measuring success in some way, whether by grades or keeping score, so why not invest similarly in your own life?
Be the first to leave a comment.Tracking your goals shouldn’t be hard if you’ve defined them clearly and broken them into manageable tasks. If you haven’t done this, you’ll find out pretty quickly when you start to monitor your progress. Give yourself the freedom to pick the tool—or combination of tools—that works for you. Here are some creative ways to track your progress: Habit-Enhancing Charts Based on the concept that people establish habits after 21 consecutive days, you can design your own chart to help you mark daily progress. Include four brief headings: the habit you want to cultivate, your start date, your goal date, and the date you achieved it. Then include 21 slots, calendar-style, that you can mark off daily as you meet the goal. If you miss one day, start a new trial period. Keep your charts in your date book, on your desk, or as a bookmark. Buy or Create a Goal Calendar These can be large enough to hang or small enough to carry with you. Mark the daily progress you make towards your goals, and briefly note problems, challenges, and successes that you experience. You can also chart higher-level goals on a monthly, quarterly, or even yearly basis. Got kids? Get them involved by letting them decorate, post accomplishment stickers, and write encouraging notes. They’ll feel important in your life and love it! Email Your Own Encouragement Send yourself a daily email reviewing how you did yesterday and what you plan to do today. You can do this at the end of each day or even at the beginning of your day. Just seeing the current email in your inbox—or even glancing over it once or twice a day—is a powerful reminder that you want to accomplish something worthwhile. Filing or printing your daily email will give you a complete record of how you’ve done, and may point out areas for improvement. Journal Keeping a daily journal of your progress is a great way to review your challenges and successes. Include how you do and how you feel in regards to your progress. And remember, if this is your main tracking tool, you must do it every day for it to be effective. If you're short on time, develop your own shorthand system or template to save time, such as rating how you did on a scale of 1 to 5. Report to a Buddy Daily or Weekly Find a friend you can talk with briefly—online or by phone—to help track your progress in tackling your goals. Make sure you choose a positive person who’s willing to help and encourage. Better yet, find someone who has goals of their own and can use your input as they track their progress. Your Current Planner or Agenda Chances are that if you have a planner or daily agenda, you can use it to keep track of your progress toward goals. You can even set aside the same spot on each daily page to make notes, check off accomplishments, and outline next steps. These are just a few ideas to help you start tracking your goals and progress. Remember that you can combine several of the tools (a daily calendar, for instance, summarized with a more-detailed, weekly journal entry). Just as you wouldn’t take a long trip without planning your route and watching the road signs, you shouldn’t expect to accomplish long-term goals without planning your journey and monitoring your progress. Create a roadmap to your success by writing down your goals—then track them to determine whether you’re chugging along, need to refuel, or should revise your route.
GET THE BALL ROLLING ON LOSING... January 23, 2010 5:55 am GET THE BALL ROLLING ON LOSING WEIGHT Losing weight is not easy. You will never hear me say that it is. It takes dedication, motivation and hard work. But by making a few easy changes you can get the ball rolling on losing weight. If you're serious about changing your lifestyle, these steps help get you there. The key is to dedicate yourself to these changes and do them consistently. No, losing weight isn't a walk in the park. But by following these steps ... you may find it's a little easier than you think! CHANGE ONE: WHAT YOU EAT
By building your meals around fish and poultry, you can more easily keep temptation at bay by eliminating many poor fast food and restaurant choices, which are over-sized and high in fat. To keep your shellfish, fish, chicken, and turkey diet-friendly, be sure to choose the right preparation method (see #2). Be wary of creamy, high-cal condiments that come with entrees, like tartar sauce or special sauce on grilled chicken sandwiches.
Not only will you save fat and calories, you will also have the added benefit of extra vitamins, minerals and fiber. Few of us eat as much fruit as recommended. In time, you will become accustomed to foregoing sweets and you'll look forward to your healthier treat just as much. CHANGE TWO: WHAT YOU DRINK Sometimes it's easy to focus so much on what we eat that we forget to include what we drink in our diet analysis. That can be a big problem, because the number of liquid calories you can consume without even realizing is quite astounding.
For example, for every 20 ounces of Coca-Cola you drink, you're consuming 250 calories. Drink several glasses a day and you can easily down 1,000 liquid calories. If you're attempting to consume around 1,500 to 1,600 calories a day in order to lose weight, you've almost blown your entire calorie budget on soda! When you think about how many calories you eat on average and then add in those empty calories, you'll realize what a waste drinking these sugary drinks is -- literally -- they go straight to your waist! If you drink a lot of soda, think of how many calories you'll be saving if you trade it in for diet soda or water. Hundreds? Even thousands? Remember, every 3,500 calories saved equals one pound lost!
Plus, drinking water more often will help you with tip #1 . You won't have time to drink soda! You may even find you crave water instead of soda once you begin drinking it more often. Try going a day or two with no soda and then sit down to a glass; you'll probably be shocked at how overly-sweet it tastes.
In the mid-1980's -- when the safety of artificial sweeteners was often headline news -- a study was published in a medical journal that suggested artificial sweeteners cause one's appetite to increase. More recently, some health experts have suggested that artificial sweeteners actually cause cravings for sweet foods to increase. If so, this reaction definitely sets you up for making poor food choices. This can lead to a big problem, particularly if you tend to binge when you eat high-carb and sugar-rich foods.
CHANGE THREE: WHAT YOU DO Next up are some behavior modifications that will help you get -- and stay -- focused on losing weight and taking care of yourself.
I'd suggest you keep a detailed food diary for at least two weeks to accurately reflect your habits.
You should record how you feel before, during, and after eating. Periodically check over your entries to see what cues set you off to binge most often. If you discover frequent binges or you can't seem to cope with stress or sadness without eating, you're an emotional eater. Don't hesitate to make an appointment with a qualified therapist or clinical social worker. Cognitive behavior therapy is extremely effective in treating over-eating due to emotions.
Why do so many people fail at losing... January 20, 2010 5:57 am Why do so many people fail at losing weight? Is it because they are lazy? No. Is it because they are addicted to food? No. Is it because they aren’t good at exercising? No. Failure at weight loss stems from a few main factors:
Visualize Weight Loss Success
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January 17, 2010 9:56 am Visualize Weight Loss SuccessBy Diane Petrella, MSW, CPCC Do you know there’s an easy strategy to assist you in achieving your weight loss goals? It’s the power of visualization. That’s right – visualize yourself losing weight and becoming fit. Rehearse in your mind choices and behaviors that you want to create in reality. These pictures become the mental blueprint guiding you towards your goal. We all do this whether or not we’re aware of it. Think of other goals you’ve accomplished. You created the vision first. For example, seeing yourself driving that sporty car, imagining yourself in a particular job. Anything you’ve wanted and received in your life first began with a picture in your mind. Elite athletes, business sales consultants and performance artists routinely practice visualization techniques. For example, golfers mentally rehearse their shot in great detail, dancers imagine the joy of the applause at the completion of a smooth performance and the savvy sales woman pictures herself closing the deal. These successful achievers learned how to apply this proven technique to assist them in reaching their goals. How does this apply to you? Positive images set the mental stage for positive results. When you visualize yourself making healthy choices at a restaurant, when you see yourself confidently walking on the treadmill, and when you imagine yourself joyfully buying clothes two sizes smaller you are training your mind to assist you in making those choices in reality. How you see yourself is the greatest predictor of your weight loss success. For example, if you are determined to lose fifty pounds yet hold onto the mental picture of yourself as a “fat? person you will continue to make choices based on that “fat? image of yourself rather than choices based on seeing yourself as fit and healthy. As you visualize yourself reaching your goal weight you more naturally make healthy choices based on this new image. Visualize yourself succeeding. If you feel stuck, most likely you’re holding old negative pictures of past failures and self-defeating experiences. Change that picture and replace it with the new successful you! For instance, my client, Sarah felt stuck and demoralized when she reached a plateau in her exercise and weight loss plan. Instead of berating herself as she had in the past she created a new self-image. For five minutes every day she imagined herself with a smile on her face walking in a park feeling happy, confident, loving her body and moving with ease and grace. This commitment to daily visualization helped her regain momentum and set her back on track. Here’s a visualization exercise to do every day. This simple technique is easy and fun.
Consistent positive visualization feeds your mind images of success. This strengthens your motivation, improves your confidence and keeps you focused on your goal.
What pictures do you hold of yourself today? |