While it seems like winter will be here forever with how cold it’s been lately, summer and bikini season will be here before you know it! Is your body ready for shorts, tanks, and bathing suits? If you’re looking to lose a few pounds to tighten and tone up, here are 16 mind tricks to help you stay self-disciplined, overcome resistance, and build effective habits that will assist you in losing weight!
Problem with procrastination?
If thoughts like “I’ll start on Monday” or “I’ll get to it later, it’s on my list” are reoccurring in your head, adapt a “do it NOW” habit by developing rituals. When you have strong rituals in place, your procrastination will no longer control you. A NOW example for staying more hydrated throughout the day might be this: when you get that thought in your head that says “you know, you really should be drinking water to keep your body hydrated…” instead of responding to yourself with “I’ll get some after I finish this email” instead, get up NOW and get some! It won’t take more than a minute, and the health benefits far outweigh the few second delay of that email.
An example of a ritual that’s easy to develop to help you with an exercise habit: Schedule exercising at a specific time each day. When that time arrives, change into your workout gear immediately without even thinking about it. For a few years my time was right after work, 5:00pm. I’d finish up my work day and some days I really did NOT want to go. But I drove myself to the gym, and parked the car. By then it was too late to drive home without going in!
Positive Thinking Mind Play
Mantras are like medicine for the soul. If you’re not familiar with them, mantras are a word or phrase that we repeat and affirm to ourselves that gets deep below the surface, into our subconscious, to help shift negative habits/thoughts/patterns into positive ones. French psychologist Émile Coué created the positive-thinking mantra: “Every day, in every way, I’m getting better and better.”
By giving yourself positive suggestions, you trick your brain into believing them. Along the lines of “fake it ‘til you make it.” We’re all suggestible. If we weren’t, marketing wouldn’t be a billion dollar global industry! Spend some time to think about a good word or phrase that would be positive advertising you do for yourself to help change a habit (for example, to stop eating when you feel full, or to stop mindless eating in front of the TV).
You Are What You Think
You have probably heard this quote from Mahatma Gandhi at one point in your life: “A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes.” We all struggle with our own mental monsters, battling things in our thoughts like “Why bother? You know you’re just going to give in to temptation again anyway” and “Do you really think you’re capable of losing weight? It’s too late at this point” and “You’ll never be one of those people to crave healthy foods and work out consistently.”
I’ve come to realize that these thoughts have no control over me as long as I don’t dwell on them. If I recognize that I think them, and let them go, maybe redirecting my thoughts onto something else, they don’t have the same affect. Try this: only reflect on the thoughts that empower you to achieve your goals; otherwise, it’s not worth a moment of consideration.
Start Slow
Even if you don’t feel motivated to start something like your workout, that doesn’t mean your efforts are doomed to fail! If you don’t have motivation to begin with, start by picking a tiny, easy part of the task to begin with. Like walking on the treadmill vs. a full on sprint. Dopamine is produced every time you achieve something, no matter how small it is.
The brain enjoys frequent positive feedback to let it know things are progressing towards a final goal, and that dopamine boost you’ll get from that initial achievement will leave you feeling buzzed — and pave the way to you doing more. I experience this nearly every time I work out in the morning. I wake up and I’m sleepy…don’t feel like going to the gym, but I drag myself out of bed, get dressed, and show up to the gym. I start slow, but before I know it my body is craving more!
Change “Have To” to “Want To”
The most naturally motivating tasks are those which we have intrinsic motivation. This basically means that the more you enjoy doing the task, and the more it matches important values for you, the more likely you are to complete the task. You can change how you view mundane tasks by recognizing their significance or making them more fun (think Mary Poppins “Spoonful of Sugar” when the kids were putting away the dancing toys!)
For example, if you’re looking to increase your workout regularity, look at it as a symbol of you being in control of your health. Make a collage of your dream body photos to remind yourself what you’re working hard for. Make workouts more enjoyable by having fun with them, listening to your favorite music, wearing fun workout clothes, or take your run outside, so you can enjoy a bit of sun.
Fill Your Workouts with Color
Did you know that weightlifters who lift weights in gyms with blue paint on the walls can lift heavier weights? Or that orange is an energy booster, a great color to get your motivated for a workout? A 2003 study for NeoCon by Kathie Engelbrecht looked at the impact of color on learning, finding that color affects the cortex and the entire central nervous system.
If cardio exercise is the main goal for your workouts, throw on brightly colored work out gear. Use an orange iPod cover and fill up an orange water bottle to get amped up for a workout. The color red increases heart rate and breathing. When you feel like you’ve hit a workout wall, a splash of red can re-invigorate the mind to finish! If yoga is more your speed, stick to calming colors like ocean-like blues or grassy greens.
Focus on the Solution, Not the Problem
Raise your hand if you spend more time thinking about how you want to lose weight than thinking about constructive ways to actually lose the weight? Lots of people fall in this bucket! It’s definitely a good idea to take some time to understand the problem. Understanding the problem means we’ll be less likely to have the same challenges in the future. But by altering the way you spend your time from thinking about the desire to lose weight to instead think about the solution to how you plan to lose the weight, we could dramatically increase our outcome success.
Write It Out
There are days when I don’t feel like working out. There are days when I don’t feel like eating super clean. But I’ve gotten myself to go to the gym and to still eat my veggies not because I have superhuman self-control (because believe me – I do not!), but because I’ve planned out my workouts and my meals/snacks ahead of time.
By taking the time to write out your workouts and your food ahead of time, including assigning time slots in your week to get your sweat on and emergency snacks to have on hand when you’re starving, you are much more likely to follow through. Let’s face it…it’s easier to slack if we don’t have a plan because there is nothing guiding us to work hard. When we plan ahead, we provide ourselves with motivation, and expectations.
Turn Off the TV
Researchers found that noisy environments may interfere with a person’s ability to appreciate subtle flavors, and people who dined in a loud setting rated their food as less appetizing than those who ate in silence (according to a study in Food Quality and Preference). If you aren’t satisfied, you tend to eat more to try and achieve fulfillment. Same goes if you are distracted and not thinking about the foods that you’re eating. So shut off the Food Network during dinner and you might save yourself a few calories.
Take Your Time
Did you know it takes your body 10-20 minutes to register that you’re full? Eat slowly by savoring each bite, putting your fork down between bites while you chew are all good techniques to try (click here for a great mindful eating exercise). By doing these things, it gives your brain time to realize your body is full. Mindfulness during meals helps bolster satiety in your brain, cutting cravings that might creep up later.
Early to Rise
I love waking up early! I’m one of those rare morning people. If you’ve ever thought “there’s just not enough hours in the day!” waking up early is the perfect way to make more hours in your day happen.
I usually get up at 6:30 a.m. I see it as my way of taking the day by the horns and making sure I get every last bit out of it, on my terms. Try it out. Not just for a day or so, try it consistently so your internal clock has the chance to adjust and it feels much less harsh. You’ll feel in control of your life rather than just going through your day in a blur. Plus, you’ll have extra time to hit the gym in the morning 😉 Start slow, get up maybe 20 minutes earlier, set the alarm on the weekend. Keep in mind – you’ll have to adjust the time you go to bed as well to make sure you’re getting 7-8 hours of shut eye to stay healthy.
Mix Things Up
Ever hear of “sensory specific response?” Your brain likes variety. When it comes to food for example, if you experience the same taste over and over again, you start to get less pleasure from it…aka the sensitivity of that specific sensor will decrease over time. Eating healthy doesn’t have to be bland. Mix up your foods to get different sensations and you may find it easier than eating the same foods over and over again. Try mixing things up a bit with a variety of fruits and vegetables. For example, you could dip a carrot (crunchy) in some hummus (creamy). Finding ways to add new spices and herbs to your dishes can make eating healthy foods a more interesting experience.
Try Meditation
There’s a reason why many people emotionally eat, for example, as a way to cope with stress. Stress causes certain regions of the brain to release chemicals, which can trigger mechanisms that are similar to the cravings you get from fat and sugar. So when you get stressed, your brain feels the addictive call of fat and sugar and you’re pulled back to junk food. Learning to deal with stress in a different way can help you overcome the addictive pull of junk food. This could include a short guided meditation, or simple breathing techniques. Check out Headspace.com.
Reward Yourself for Staying on Track
I don’t know about you, but for me, even a little reward goes a long way towards motivation! Spend some time to think of how you could reward yourself for a job well done, and then write out some mini goals so when you achieve them, you can celebrate (for example: no fast food for 2 weeks, working out for 5 days for 2 weeks in a row, or incorporating at least 3 vegetables in your lunch and dinner for 2 weeks). Here are some ideas:
- Get a manicure
- Read a new fun book
- Get a massage
- Go to a movie
- Buy a new workout outfit
- Get a fresh juice at a local shop
You deserve a reward for working hard and if it motivates you to finish your workout and/or eat cleaner, it’s worth it!
Re-Evaluate Portion Sizes
I read an amazing book called Why We Eat More Than We Think: Mindless Eating. It was SO fascinating I had trouble putting it down! In the book, one of the experiments they conducted was around portion sizes. They found that the size of the plate/bowl we eat our food on can play mind tricks on us. If we take a serving of a meal and put it on a bigger plate, we’ll eat more and feel less satisfied than if we take that same serving and put it on a smaller plate. Practice proper portion control and serve yourself on a smaller vessel. Instead of “ballparking” food sizes, use these measurements for most commons foods:
- Steak – size of the palm of your hand or a deck of cards (3 – 5 oz)
- Fish – size of a check book
- Pasta – average fist or tennis ball (1 cup)
- Piece of fruit – baseball
- Nuts – handful (1 oz)
- Nut butter – golf ball (1 oz)
- Cheese – about 4 dice (1 oz)
- Cooking oil – thumb tip (1 teaspoon)
- Chocolate – a packet of dental floss (1 oz
- Potato – size of a computer mouse
Track Your Habits
Despite our best intentions, it is surprisingly difficult for us to be honest with ourselves about our behaviors. You may believe you don’t eat much bread every week, cook nutritious foods at home on a regular basis, and spend enough time working out each week, but it is easier than you think to slip into a rut and neglect your health.
Keeping track of your healthy habits shouldn’t feel obsessive, like calorie counting or portion measuring. There are lots of healthy habits I try to maintain, including trying new foods, oil pulling daily, doing at least 1 class at the gym every week, and shopping at the farmers market. To keep track of these habits, I can either make a check list and check them off daily, or write down healthy things I do each day. Whatever you pick, it’s designed to build awareness of your habits.
