Overcoming Mental Barriers to Achieve Weight Loss

The most powerful obstacle to weight loss is not usually our diets or exercise routine so much as our mental ability to handle the types of healthy changes that we want to make in order to improve our lives. But there are many pitfalls that can easily be stumbled into on the way to good health and well-being.

This article will address them and what to do in order to begin overcoming the obstacles that are holding you back.

One of the most basic mental barriers to weight loss is a bad image of the self.

If you don’t care about yourself or your body, of course it will be easy for you to neglect your health.

All the diet books in the world wouldn’t be able to help you overcome this issue. Fortunately, there are many ways you can begin to develop a more caring attitude toward yourself.

Whether you choose to begin meditation and practicing mindfulness, or seek the help of a qualified professional who can help you to begin to see yourself and your value more clearly, there are ways to overcome this mental barrier once and for all to begin a healthy eating journey that will stick with you for the rest of your life.

Another major issue that a huge portion of the population faces is depression. Depression is sneaky and can often times come across as other things, such as irritability or tiredness.

If you suspect you may be suffering from depression, there are many courses you could take to begin treating it.

Once you have been able to pinpoint the source of the issue, then it will become that much easier to begin to reclaim your life.

Many of us end up eating when we are sad or angry or otherwise feeling badly, and the label emotional eating can fit into this category.

If you are an emotional eater, the best thing to do for yourself is to become familiar with your triggers.

Beginning a food journal is a good way to help you get in touch with your body and your habits, and ultimately provide you with insight.

When you realize you are triggered into emotional eating, then it will be easier for you to stop yourself from doing so and regain control over your life and your diet.

Others may attempt to take on too much too fast and overload their brains with frantic efforts to lose weight.

They make it a challenge that seems so huge and important and insurmountable that it causes the body to go into stress mode, which ironically causes us to hold on to even more weight as a survival mechanism.

Rather than psyching yourself out and setting goals for yourself that may seem unattainable, instead, break things down into manageable pieces so you will be able to work toward your goals with ease.

Losing weight is not an impossible task. It is something that all of us can do if we put our minds to it.

However, that is the most challenging part, and with these tips in mind, you too can begin to go on a diet that is foolproof, starting now!

Emotional Attachment to Bad Foods and What to Do About It

Comfort foods are something that almost all of us resort to at one time or another throughout our lives. But what happens when your comfort foods are part of the problem?

Then they cease to be comforting so much as a glaring reminder that we are struggling with a weight or health issue that feels impossible to overcome.

The things that once brought us so much peace and contentment now bring us strife. What do we do about it?

Don’t fret! Comfort foods may have a place in our hearts, but they don’t have to have a place in our diets.

And if they do, they can take up residence in a way that is accommodating rather than destructive. We do not necessarily have to get rid of our comfort foods in order to get them back in our diets.

Instead, we can begin to change our relationship with food by understanding what is unhealthy about our comfort foods and modifying them in order to change them into something we can still enjoy, but that we don’t have to feel guilty about eating!

Sure, this may seem to take away the positive benefits of having comfort foods to begin with. you may find it difficult to conceive of enjoying a comfort food that isn’t cooked in the very specific way that you like.

However, you can retrain your mind to begin to associate your comfort foods with healthier alternative versions.

Interrupting your neural processes can help you to stop any negative feelings you have about replacing these foods.

Simply replace negative thoughts with positive ones once you have recognized yourself having a negative thought about your comfort foods.

Then, you will begin to have a better relationship with the thought of replacing your unhealthy comfort foods with healthier alternatives.

Healthy alternatives can be found everywhere.

For example, if you really love mashed potatoes but you know they are full of carbs you shouldn’t eat, you can cut the amount of potatoes in half and replace it with cauliflower for the other half, or you could even make the switch to sweet potatoes instead.

Where there’s a will there’s a way, and you can begin to seek out healthy alternatives to less than healthy foods.

This can even begin to work with desserts and sweets as well. Instead of eating artificial and processed snacks, you can begin to get your own fix.

Looking into raw food cook books can provide a guilt-free alternative to unhealthy snacks and desserts so you can begin eating healthy, even when it feels like you’re not!

There has never been a better time to say out with the old, in with the new than when beginning to replace your old comfort foods with healthier alternatives.

It may be a challenge at first, but it is one you can easily rise to meet so that you can begin to take control of your life and embark upon a foolproof diet that will benefit you for years to come!