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Lose weight NOW # 4 - Mental Strength

The lose weight NOW series comes to a close now with the final post on using mental strength to ensure success.

Why mental strength is essential to success

If you did a survey of all the reasons why women fail with their weight loss I can almost guarantee that every single one of the reasons would be internal, mental reasons. I did a poll on Real Muscle Online recently asking what the main reasons for failing to lose weight were and the results were not too surprising.

• About 5% of voters said they didn’t need to lose weight;
• About 5% of voters said it was due to a lack of weight loss information;
• The final 90% said that they weren’t mentally strong enough.

Why are these weight loss poll results good news?

The reason this is good news is it means women out there really only need to work on one thing - their mind. If you can get a good diet plan, a good exercise routine and some family support then the only thing you need to do is work on your mind.

Some of the big reasons for quitting weight loss programs are:

• Not enough time (not good enough!)
• Too tired
• Give in to temptation
• Can’t afford good food

All of these reasons are valid but all of these reason are workable. There is ALWAYS room for hope or improvement so your situation is ALWAYS workable.

The secret to weight loss success is…

…really easy! Yeah right! All you need to do is get a good set of goals. I have talked about this so many times and people have heard it before on Dr. Phil and Oprah but they never really listen or implement those ideas.

But this is a bad idea guys! You must take on board the advice given by people who know what they are talking about. Now, I don’t mean me, but I do mean Oprah, Dr. Phil, the Dalai Lama… anyone who has used an idea or a set of principles to achieve something great. Someone who has gone from nothing to something or from a hopeless situation into a millionaire. Learning from these people can provide great insights into how we can change our own situation.

How to develop a USEFUL losing weight GOAL

There is really only one thing you need in a goal to make sure it works and that is a time-line. You need to know when you want to achieve something by. However, if you want to super-charge your weight loss goals then you should include:

• A date
• A method
• A result
• A motivation

This is what I get my clients to do and it works well. Here are some examples:

A BAD GOAL - Lose weight for my prom dance.

Why is it bad? Because it is not specific enough.

A GOOD GOAL - I will lose 20 pounds of excess fat by following [insert weight loss program] and exercising four times a week. I will lose the weight by December 13th, 2007 and by doing so I will by a size 12 prom dress.

Why is it good? It has all the elements so there are no little cracks through which your mind can trick you. You know exactly what to do, how to do it, when to do it by and what the reward can be.

How to keep your goal on track

The best bit of advice I ever got was from a Buddhist master called His Holiness the Karmapa. He said something like:

Relax your conceptual mind. It is only when you relax it that real inspiration can take place. Watch your thoughts. Don’t try to stomp on them or let them trail off. Just watch them.

This is a great tip for losing weight too. When you are up early ready for a run don’t let your mind’s chatter convince you than five more minutes sleep will be a good idea or that it is too cold to go for a run. Just get up an do it.

Have a laugh at your mind’s mental games and get on with life.

Where to go from here...

We hope you enjoyed the 4 part series on how to lose weight now. Would you like to learn more about losing weight? Head over to our Women's Fitness Forum and ask us any questions you have. We're more than happy to help you achieve your weight loss goals!

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