Self Talk And Weight Loss: How Self Talk Can Effect Your Weight Loss

In this article I want to discuss the importance of the way you think about yourself and how your thoughts can sabotage your weight loss efforts. If you keep telling yourself that you're always going to be fat; that you're never going to be able to lose your excess weight, then it's highly likely you'll always stay fat. Now I hope that shocked you because it was supposed to. A key factor in losing weight is changing the way you talk to yourself; your internal monologue. Whether you actually hear it or not it is always there and the sooner you refocus your thoughts, the better your outlook and your life will be.

There is an expression that goes, 'take every thought captive.' For a number of you that will mean absolutely nothing so let me explain. As I just mentioned we all have thoughts running through our heads every second of every day during our waking hours. You are quite probably unaware of these thoughts so the first thing to learn is to recognise exactly what you are thinking at any given time. It's not all that hard, you simply need to stop what you're doing and think about what it was that was just running through your mind.

For the over weight person it is frequently something associated with their endeavours to lose those extra pounds/kilos. Some examples might be: what am I going to be eating for my next meal, how can I stick to my latest diet, how fat I am, how unattractive I look in all my clothes, how I hate having to shop for clothes as nothing ever looks any good, why don't I just give up as nothing ever works, and so on and so on. This internal monolgue is with you consistently and you must become aware of these thoughts.

Once you've practiced this for a while it will become easier as what you need to do is recognise the negative thought and instantly change it into something positive. Perhaps you were just thinking about how great a work buddy was looking today and you wished you could look half as good. Well capture that thought and say to yourself, I look great and every day I am looking better and better. I am a really nice person and I intend for everyone to see the real me, I am not hiding behind my weight.

Are you beating yourself up on a daily basis by thinking you're fat and lazy and you're never going to succeed? Well it's time to turn those thoughts around. Imagine if you changed your internal dialogue and thought something like this, "I can lose weight and be healthy," or "I'm going to eat well today and feel really good about myself." If you start making your self talk more positive and less defeatist your whole life will change for the better.

The most important thing for you to know is just exactly what you're thinking about yourself at any given time and if you find your self talk to be self-deprecating turn the thought into a positive affirmation immediately. You really must learn to check out your thoughts and use them to your advantage.

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