Changing Your Mindset
By Coach Angelena Riggs
When you set a health and fitness goal you are excited and ready to take on the challenge to reach that goal. But somewhere along the way you give in to peer pressure or temptation, beat yourself up over “falling off the wagon” and vow to do better next week. This kind of thinking can be harmful, and will most likely result in giving up. It may be time to change your mindset and approach to reaching your goals. Your mind is so powerful when it comes to achieving your goals, if you truly believe that you will be successful and will reach that goal you truly will. However, if you talk down to yourself about “screwing up” on your “diet” then you won’t get any where. You need to decide what is important to you and ditch the negative self talk.
Here are a few ways to change your mindset when it comes to reaching your health and fitness goals:
Food as fuel vs. food as a reward- Food is meant to fuel our bodies not reward us for a good workout or a long week at the office. If you think about all the work you put in at the gym and decide to fuel your body with whole, real food you will start to see food in a different way and it will be easier to say no to the foods you know are going to make you feel terrible or deter you from reaching your goals.
Planning treats vs. having a “cheat” meal/day- Just because you are trying to reach your goal whether it is to lose weight or finally see that six pack you can plan in some treats. This is different than having a full cheat meal or even a cheat day. If you know that you are going out to dinner and really want a glass of wine, plan it and eat a healthy meal. If you really want dessert at your favorite restaurant stick with lean protein and veggies for your meal. This way you are prepared going into a meal instead of going all out on a meal, drink and dessert. This will not get you any closer to your goal, it will just make you feel terrible the day after an over indulgence.
Letting go of a mistake vs. beating yourself up- Let’s face it you are human, and you may make mistakes or have a slip-up here and there in your journey to reaching your goals. When it happens, let it go. You can’t go back and change the past, and beating yourself up will only make you feel worse. Negative self talk is powerful and can bring you down and make you feel like quitting. Take a moment to decide you don’t want to do it again then LET IT GO!
Long term lifestyle change vs. short term goal- If you see your goals as only a means to an end it will be much easier to stop when the willpower or motivation is gone. However if you realize that what you are doing is making long term lifestyle changes it will be easier to keep going. It is fine to focus on small goals as long as you want to maintain where you are with lifestyle changes. For example you want to lose 10 pounds for that special event. Let’s say you reach your goal, that is the time to maintain those lifestyle changes you adapted while working on your goal. If you go back to what you were doing before you are setting yourself up for yo-yo weight gain and loss.
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