Many of you, including myself have been trying to lose weight for many years. We have tried the diets, read the "30 weight loss tips" in magazines, brought the fitness videos. But there is still something lacking. Many people have lost weight with different methods and kept it off for years. I bet each of us knows someone who was fat in school and then we see them years later and the look gorgeous and slim. So weight loss diets and methods DO work for some people. What separates the ones who it works for and those it doesn't then?
It's about mindset
Yes, the difference between us and people who have slimmed down is mindset. You may be thinking that's a load of rubbish. Personally I have loads of motivation to lose weight:
I feel ugly
I lack self confidence
I don't want to die young of heart attack/stroke
I don't want to get diabetes
There's some pretty strong motivation right there but I'm still fat. I lose weight like ½ - 1 stone and then I put weight back on. Over the next few weeks, I'll cover different methods that are working for me.
Push / Pull method
Half of a method of motivation is above but we're missing the second half.
The second half is something to move towards. We have the motivation there to start to move away from our current weight but as soon as I lose that half stone, my self confidence improves, I feel like I'm doing well. And then I relax in my habits. "I've done well so one bag of sweets wont hurt." And then things fall like dominoes from there. Before I know it, within a few weeks I've put all that weight back on.
So, what we need is something that when we've lost our motivation that pushes us to lose weight in the first place, pulls us towards our target weight. It's simple really but it works. Above we have a list of reasons we don't want to be fat. Now all we need is a list of reasons we want to be slim.
How I do this
I took a notebook and on the left page wrote "Pushing away motivation" and "Pulling towards motivation". Here are my motivations for each of these:
Pushing away motivation
Being embarrassed buying XL clothes
Feeling fat in front of new people I'm meeting
Feeling embarrassed going to the beach on holiday
Feeling low self-confidence
Feeling tired
Seeing my man-boobs
Feeling fat when the barber is adjusting the height of the chair.
Pulling towards motivation
Being told I look like I've lost weight
Looking in the mirrors and thinking "damn I look good!"
Living longer in a healthy body
Not having to suck my belly in
Having to buy a smaller belt
Having to buy smaller clothes
Having a six-pack
Having one chin
Being able to rock climb
Seeing muscle definition in my arms / shoulders
Wanting to show off my new body to people
The more weight you lose, the more the 'towards' factors will motivate you. Each day, I read through my list of 'towards' and then add one more to it. This helps keep my motivation high and puts me in a good frame of mind to start the day.
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Aversion Techniques - Review
OK. My aversion techniques worked. Well, kind of. The thing is that their use was quite short sighted.
Aversion techniques are great if you are repeatedly eating a food that you just can't say no to. But they are not meant to be used for a whole diet change by themselves.
I tried using them exclusively to enforce my healthy eating habits and it worked for a few days. However, it all boils down to motivation. As I hadn't built the motivation needed, I gave in keeping up my aversion of paying a 'fine' to eat wheat.
They will work if you tie them in with other things. If you have been trying to lose weight for a while, you probably know how to lose weight (keep calories down, stay away from sugars and refined carbs etc. ). The problem is putting it into action and then keeping it going.
In his book Think And Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill's main points are that to succeed in anything you need to follow certain things in order. They are:
1. Have a strong desire/yearning to do something
2. Totally believe you can do it
3. Plan thoroughly
4. Take action
5. Persist until you succeed
I have a very strong desire to lose weight. I totally believe I can do it. I have a plan to do it (stop eating wheat and sugar). It's just the putting it into action and persisting in it that I suck at at the moment. This is where motivation comes in. I'm currently reading some things to try to learn how to channel my motivation so that I actually implement this.
The aversion techniques come in here. When your putting your steps into action you may find you trip over Irish coffees, for example. So, you would go back to your plan, add in your aversion techniques to it to rid that trip-hazzard then commence steps 4 and 5. The motivation comes in at 4 and 5 so that's what I need to get it nailed next so that I can really up my game.
How do you motivate your self to lose weight?
Aversion techniques are great if you are repeatedly eating a food that you just can't say no to. But they are not meant to be used for a whole diet change by themselves.
I tried using them exclusively to enforce my healthy eating habits and it worked for a few days. However, it all boils down to motivation. As I hadn't built the motivation needed, I gave in keeping up my aversion of paying a 'fine' to eat wheat.
They will work if you tie them in with other things. If you have been trying to lose weight for a while, you probably know how to lose weight (keep calories down, stay away from sugars and refined carbs etc. ). The problem is putting it into action and then keeping it going.
In his book Think And Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill's main points are that to succeed in anything you need to follow certain things in order. They are:
1. Have a strong desire/yearning to do something
2. Totally believe you can do it
3. Plan thoroughly
4. Take action
5. Persist until you succeed
I have a very strong desire to lose weight. I totally believe I can do it. I have a plan to do it (stop eating wheat and sugar). It's just the putting it into action and persisting in it that I suck at at the moment. This is where motivation comes in. I'm currently reading some things to try to learn how to channel my motivation so that I actually implement this.
The aversion techniques come in here. When your putting your steps into action you may find you trip over Irish coffees, for example. So, you would go back to your plan, add in your aversion techniques to it to rid that trip-hazzard then commence steps 4 and 5. The motivation comes in at 4 and 5 so that's what I need to get it nailed next so that I can really up my game.
How do you motivate your self to lose weight?
Monday, July 02, 2012
Weighing Frequency
The weight of your body seems to be the most common way of tracking your weight. If you are going to track it in this way then you have the dilemma of how often you will weigh yourself. I do it every day but my wife does it once a week. I recommend weighing yourself every day because you will have motivation every day to continue improving your body. Every day you should weigh yourself in the morning, after you pee just after rising and before you get dressed or eat/drink anything. This will ensure consistency with your weighing and will ensure that you won't register as weighting more because you've drunk water and eaten food that morning.
Some sources site reasons for not weighing every day such as fluctuations in weight can be demoralising. However, if you know why these fluctuations occur, then you are more likely to be encouraged by your overall results.
Fluctuations can occur for a number of reasons. The biggest one is water retention. During a recent hot period at home, my weight fluctuated wildly:
2012-05-23 234.0
2012-05-24 236.8
2012-05-25 233.6
2012-05-26 236.2
2012-05-27 232.8
As you can see, my weight went up by nearly 3lb then down by 3lb then up by 3lb again and then down by 4lb. This is due to not being used to drinking enough water to keep up with my extra fluid loss. I could tell because my pee was dark yellow, a classic sign of dehydration.
Here's how I think my water drinking affected my weight:
2012-05-23 234.0 starting weight for this segment.
2012-05-24 236.8 +2.8lb kind of fluctuation I get every few days
2012-05-25 233.6 -3.2lb loss in fluids due to not drinking enough previous day in hot weather
2012-05-26 236.2 +2.6lb because of dehydration 2 days ago, my body kept as much water as it could yesterday, hence my weight gain
2012-05-27 232.8 -3.4lb loss of water due to not drinking enough previous day
Here's an example of how weekly weighing can be misleading:
Weekly weigh
Week 1 : 234.5lb
Week 2 : 233.0lb
This shows a loss of only 1.5 lb but you may actually have a loss of 4.5lb of fat and are carrying 3lbs of extra water.
Daily weigh
Week 1
Day 1 : 234.5lb
Day 2 : 233.3lb
Day 3 : 233.5lb
Day 4 : 231.8lb
Day 5 : 230.1lb
Day 6 : 229.5lb
Day 7 : 229.1lb
Week 2
Day 8 : 233.0lb
This shows that you were losing fat through the week but may have excess water when you did the weekly weigh. For me this a much more encouraging method of tracking your fat loss.
Other things that can also affect your fluctuations are:
Salt - a slight increase can cause you to retain water, thus increasing your weight
Water - drinking more water can make you seem to gain initially but then it will soon drop once your body becomes accustomed to your new intake amount
Vegetables - increasing the amount of vegetables you eat will have a similar effect to drinking more water because 80-90% of fruits and vegetables is water.
Personally, I write down my weight daily on a sheet of paper and then plot it onto a graph that is on my kitchen cupboard. I find it easier to see the fat loss in the general direction of the line than in the numbers themselves. I can also see visually how close I am to my goals I set.
Women, remember that you will weigh more in the days leading up to the start of your menstrual cycle as your body will retain a lot more water. Keep this in mind and don't be discouraged.
Some sources site reasons for not weighing every day such as fluctuations in weight can be demoralising. However, if you know why these fluctuations occur, then you are more likely to be encouraged by your overall results.
Fluctuations can occur for a number of reasons. The biggest one is water retention. During a recent hot period at home, my weight fluctuated wildly:
2012-05-23 234.0
2012-05-24 236.8
2012-05-25 233.6
2012-05-26 236.2
2012-05-27 232.8
As you can see, my weight went up by nearly 3lb then down by 3lb then up by 3lb again and then down by 4lb. This is due to not being used to drinking enough water to keep up with my extra fluid loss. I could tell because my pee was dark yellow, a classic sign of dehydration.
Here's how I think my water drinking affected my weight:
2012-05-23 234.0 starting weight for this segment.
2012-05-24 236.8 +2.8lb kind of fluctuation I get every few days
2012-05-25 233.6 -3.2lb loss in fluids due to not drinking enough previous day in hot weather
2012-05-26 236.2 +2.6lb because of dehydration 2 days ago, my body kept as much water as it could yesterday, hence my weight gain
2012-05-27 232.8 -3.4lb loss of water due to not drinking enough previous day
Here's an example of how weekly weighing can be misleading:
Weekly weigh
Week 1 : 234.5lb
Week 2 : 233.0lb
This shows a loss of only 1.5 lb but you may actually have a loss of 4.5lb of fat and are carrying 3lbs of extra water.
Daily weigh
Week 1
Day 1 : 234.5lb
Day 2 : 233.3lb
Day 3 : 233.5lb
Day 4 : 231.8lb
Day 5 : 230.1lb
Day 6 : 229.5lb
Day 7 : 229.1lb
Week 2
Day 8 : 233.0lb
This shows that you were losing fat through the week but may have excess water when you did the weekly weigh. For me this a much more encouraging method of tracking your fat loss.
Other things that can also affect your fluctuations are:
Salt - a slight increase can cause you to retain water, thus increasing your weight
Water - drinking more water can make you seem to gain initially but then it will soon drop once your body becomes accustomed to your new intake amount
Vegetables - increasing the amount of vegetables you eat will have a similar effect to drinking more water because 80-90% of fruits and vegetables is water.
Personally, I write down my weight daily on a sheet of paper and then plot it onto a graph that is on my kitchen cupboard. I find it easier to see the fat loss in the general direction of the line than in the numbers themselves. I can also see visually how close I am to my goals I set.
Women, remember that you will weigh more in the days leading up to the start of your menstrual cycle as your body will retain a lot more water. Keep this in mind and don't be discouraged.
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