Doing What You’ve Always Done
Many have the intent to lose excess body and belly fat specifically, but too few create and follow the necessary steps to not only lose fat, but to keep it off.
If you are storing excess body fat right now, then foods in your daily diet may not be serving you or, you may have a sluggish metabolism and you need to move your body more.
The fact is, what you’re doing now is not working for you, so something needs to change.
Wrong Information
Studies and research in the health, fitness and wellness industries are constantly releasing amazing findings about the brain, gut health, your cells, metabolism, movement and so much more. Not keeping up to date with this information could have you stuck in beliefs from yesteryear resulting in you following systems that just don’t work.
Search online, buy the latest books or read free information from people you know you can trust and who have experience and qualifications in the area of knowledge you are sourcing.
Be open to the latest findings and trust me when I say, anything recommended as a quick fix is something you want to stay right away from.
Confused Mindset
Wanting to lose weight can be very confusing and thinking about it, can be very overwhelming. But there lay’s the first problem, you’re thinking about it and not actually determined to set the plan to make permanent change.
There are three elements of success to any weight loss journey. You can’t have one without the other. All three are equally important
1. Mindset 2. Diet 3. Exercise
Weight loss doesn’t make you a happier person. Only actively changing your mindset can make you a happier person, and the only person responsible for that is you.
So let me ask you…… are you bullying yourself? Do you consciously or unconsciously talk down to yourself? And because of this, are you turning to food for comfort or allowing yourself to give up on even thinking you can succeed with long term health change?
From today, forget the past. Commit to leaving it all behind you. Start fresh with awareness. Be aware of when your bully words speaks down to you. Consciously reject the negative thought with something positive about you. It will take practice but remember, your brain remembers what you tell it. So, tell it positive things because the only one listening is YOU.
Are Hidden Sugars Holding You Back?
Fresh and packaged foods can contain or be labelled with a total of 57 names for sugar. That’s staggering. If you read a food label at the supermarket that doesn’t have the word sugar in it’s nutritional outline, don’t automatically think the food item hasn’t got sugar in it.
Names like Corn syrup, Dextrose, Glucose, Sucrose, and Agave nectar are all the more well known alternate names for sugar. The not so well known one’s are Galactose, D-ribose, and Ethyl maltol, to name a few.
Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that fruit juices are healthy for you and contain no sugar – commercial or fresh squeezed. Even though no sugar may be added to the beverage and many fruit juices contain vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, fruit juice contains no fibre and is very high in fructose – which is a sugar. Further, liquid calories don't seem to affect the appetite centre in your brain the same way calories from solid foods do. So the “full” message doesn’t trigger you to stop like consuming food would.
Processed Foods
Research shows that one of the ringleaders for storing belly fat is the over consumption of refined processed foods. Refined grains like white bread, crackers, English muffins, corn tortillas, and chips; as well as refined sugars in sweetened drinks and desserts, all increase inflammation in your body and are causing visceral fat to build around the very organs that are keeping you alive.
Aim to include lots of raw and natural foods like vegetables, salads in your daily diet because they contain antioxidants, which have anti-inflammatory properties and may help greatly reduce dangerous belly fat.
You’re Not Doing What You Love
It’s a well-known fact that exercise is going to assist in burning stored body fat because using your muscles and organs burns energy which is put into your body through food and drinks.
But if you don’t enjoy the thought of exercising and you have to force yourself to do it, then there’s about a 90% chance you just won’t do it long term. As soon as you tell yourself you must do something that another part of your brain is rejecting the very thought of you starting to do, the battle begins.
So change the way you approach exercise. Move your body with activities you enjoy instead of following a trend that is beyond your current physical capabilities. You will always stick to what you enjoy.
Not Enough Diversity
Familiarity of doing the same activity or eating the same daily diet may seem like a great idea. If it works, sick to it. But that will in time lead to boredom and worse still, you could be nutritionally depriving your body or setting negative pathways in your bodies muscles which may lead to damage.
Let me explain.
It’s all about balance. You eat foods to keep you alive. The foods you eat need to nourish your cells, hormones, organs and your gut for energy, functioning, and optimal health. If you fail to change your daily diet and eat a variety of foods that provide you vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, etc, then in time, your body will tell you something isn’t right through the way you feel.
When you exercise, you cause microscopic damage to your muscles. The muscles then adapt, repair themselves, and grow stronger when you rest. If you keep using the same muscle groups and don’t use opposing muscles or other supporting muscles, those microtears will make your muscles weaker resulting in injury over time.
Obsessed With The Scales
For some women, the reading on the bathroom scales is a motivation tool but for many more, it’s the tool that triggers failure and eventually great pain and frustration.
There’s a right and wrong time and way to weigh yourself.
If you're compulsively stepping on the scale before and after meals, then you are sabotaging your ability to move forward successfully. Weight naturally fluctuates throughout the day, so if you're inclined to step on the scale daily, doing so first thing in the morning, after visiting the bathroom, without clothing, and before breakfast is going to be your most accurate reading.
Because a women’s body fluctuates with fluid, it is best to choose the same day and time each week to weigh yourself, This program will create a pattern of numbers you can track. You only need to worry if your weekly reading is increasing significantly week to week.
You Have No Plan
If you say you are going to lose want, want to lose weight, are thinking it’s time you changed your diet or did some exercise so you can lose weight, then you have a dream and no plan. You are saying or thinking statements, but you have no commitment or true desire to change.
Change and permanent weight management will only come to fruition once you set a plan, with definite steps and an end date of the goal you will achieve.
Excuses
Finding excuses as to why you can’t, won’t or shouldn’t follow your action plan to permanently lose weight. Will become your undoing every time.
Making an excuse makes it pretty clear that you are not committed and passionate about the weight you say you want to lose.
Excuses like…….
“I don’t have time”
“I’m too old to change my ways”
"I've already blown it - so it doesn't matter what I eat now."
"I'll start my diet tomorrow."
"I had a bad day and "deserved" a treat."
"Everyone else was having some."
"I was bored”
"I'll never lose weight - it's in my genes."
"It's the week-end, I've been "good" all week so I can eat anything I want now."
"I exercised hard, so eating this snack won’t hurt."
Is nothing more than self-sabotage.
Replace your excuses with goals.
The difference between those people who lose weight and those who don't is simply
how many excuses they make.