The Psychology of Weight Loss: How Your Way of Thinking Can Contribute to FAST Weight Loss

Using Psychology to Promote Fast Weight Loss

If you've ever gone on a diet, you know that willpower - in other words, the power of the mind - is 99% of the battle. Being able to control your attitude, ideas and emotions in order to guide your behavior is crucial to success when it comes to dieting, whether it's slow and steady or fairly fast weight loss.

So we're going to learn some mental techniques to help you with your attitude and motivation.

Changing Your Reactions to Food

Did you know that overweight people are much more sensitive to cues like taste, smell, sight, and associations between food and certain places or occasions? These cues can be things like seeing baked goods in a store window or smelling a certain food, and they prompt us to eat even if we're not hungry. Many of us were brought up to clean everything off our plates. That's another unhelpful cue or signal that works against all our efforts at fast weight loss.

Let's get to know these cues better so we can learn how to turn them off:

Internal Cues: These are signals that come from inside you like a grumbling stomach or a headache or other signs that tell you your body is hungry. These are good cues. If you stop paying attention to them, you may actually lose your ability to know when you're truly hungry as opposed to feeling like eating for other reasons.

External Cues: These are the troublemakers. They are the things we see, smell, or otherwise are tempted by. They include TV commercials, check-out candy displays at the supermarket, and just walking through the mall past all those food kiosks. This is an ever-present challenge for anyone on a fast weight loss diet... or anyone who's just trying to control their eating.

How to Lose the Cues

The best way to beat the external cues blues is to avoid them when possible and learn how to respond correctly to those you can't avoid. For instance, you can empty your home of chocolate bars and packaged snack foods, but you can't do a thing about all the temptations you face on your drive to work or the treats in the office lunch room.

So it's best to learn some techniques for controlling your responses to temptation:

• Wait it out. Those temptations are time-limited. If you don't respond to them immediately, they will pass. And every time you resist the urge to eat, that cue will become weaker and have less effect on you.
• Remove all bad foods from sight. Like they say, "Out of sight, out of mind".
• Keep "good" foods around: low fat, healthy choices. This will help program you to reach for these foods first when you are hungry.
• Don't leave serving containers on the table when you eat. This will dramatically cut down on second helpings. If you have to keep snack foods on hand for family members, buy only the things you don't like.
• Don't eat anything that's not on your plate. Grabbing forkfuls of food right from the fridge is just cheating, and you'll trick yourself into believing it doesn't count. It does!
• Plan your menu before hand and don't eat anything that isn't on the plan.
• Eat only at your designated eating places, like the kitchen table or the cafeteria at work... no eating in front of the TV, at your desk, or in the car. It's too easy for that to get out of control.

You know yourself that there are certain bad eating habits that sabotage your efforts at fast weight loss. Identify them and tackle them one at a time. Replace them with better habits and don't stop until they are second nature to you.

Write a list of problems and solutions so you have solid evidence of your intention to lose weight. Like this:

Problem: I can't resist buying my favorite "comfort" foods.

Solution: I won't shop on an empty stomach. I will shop only after eating and after working out. I will shop from a list. I will wear "blinders" as I go through the check out so those candy bars and snacks can't lure me into buying them.

Problem: I am addicted to eating while watching TV.

Solution: Instead of eating, I'll put my treadmill / stationary bike in front of the television. I'll knit or do some other craft so my hands are busy while watching TV. I'll only eat healthy snacks like unbuttered popcorn or fruit in front of the tube.

Etc. etc. Only you know what your individual challenges are. You know what temptations foil your fast weight loss efforts time after time. And you know how to solve them.

Mind Games for Fast Weight Loss Success

If dieting is all drudgery, it's no wonder people fall off the wagon. Here are some fun things to try in your pursuit of fast weight loss... or slow and steady weight loss.

• Put a picture of yourself at your heaviest on the fridge or mirror. It will serve as a reminder of how far you've come. Take pictures of your progress and the changes you see will reward and motivate you to continue.
• Save a piece of clothing you wore at your heaviest. Just one item for comparison. Try it on once in a while for a tangible demonstration of how well you're doing.
• Use visualization to help you. Studies show that when the mind has a good idea or picture of what it wants to do, results will come quicker and easier. Your fast weight loss goals are within reach.

Daily Visualization Method:

• Pick a quiet comfortable place -- lying in bed first thing in the morning or at night.
• Close your eyes and relax. Picture what you will look like at your ideal weight.
• Imagine your feelings of joy, pride, and energy. Imagine the new clothes you will be wearing, and what you'll be doing at the time.
• Also imagine what you need to do to reach this goal. Imagine these things not as unpleasant tasks but as enjoyable accomplishments.
• Think of someone you admire and want to look like or be like. It could be a model, athlete, movie star, friend or anyone who inspires you. Pretend you are them. Enjoy the experience.

These days there are many celebrity articles about the fast weight loss diets and workouts of the famous and beautiful. Imagine how they eat and what they do to keep in such great shape and have so much energy. If you pretend that's you, it will get much easier to say no to bad foods and keep yourself motivated.

This is a good motivational trick to use when your willpower is low. This is how you, too, can become a big winner by becoming a big loser! And whether your goal is fast weight loss or a gradual, steady, consistent weight loss, a strong, determined mind is your greatest ally in the battle of the bulge.