It may sound a bit funny, but there are actually some simple ways you can trick yourself into eating better & working out harder, to get the weight loss results you want. It's really all a mental game anyway, right? The discipline, creating habits, etc. So these 3 tricks are really all about what you tell yourself. Sometimes play these little "mind" games myself to get an edge.
1) Do Not Tell Yourself - I'll Start Tomorrow
Telling myself "I'll start tomorrow" has caused me to overeat more than I care to mention. By saying that tomorrow is the start of your "diet" or your fitness journey - it creates a sense of obligation to eat whatever you can today. When the truth of the matter is, we know that today is not going to be our last opportunity ever to eat cake & ice cream or pizza or whatever may be your guilty pleasure. Instead... do this:
2) Do Tell Yourself - I Can Have It (Just Not Today)
By over-restricting ourselves, we actually create a desire to have something that we may not have even wanted otherwise. Do you ever find that to be the case? It's like wanting something just because you can't have it. Now here's the trick, that will keep you from "cheating" all the time & allowing yourself to have everything (because that won't help you lose weight right)? Here's the trick - say "I can have it... just not today." This creates discipline, allows you to exercise self-control and prevents you from feeling over restricted. Maybe tomorrow you really do have a small treat. Or maybe you repeat this same mantra again tomorrow... And the next day... Do you see how this can lead to creating a good few days? Or even few weeks? And by the time you start to see progress, you won't want to go back. Let's move on to trick #3.
3) Do Tell Yourself - I'll Just Work Out a Little Bit
This probably sounds counter-intuitive. Let me explain. You won't tell yourself this every day. But as we all know there comes times when we just flat out don't feel like workout. These are the times when you will tell yourself "I'll just workout a little bit." In my case, that may mean saying "OK, I'll just do 10 minutes on the treadmill." There's two great things that happen with this. a) Of course, the obvious - at least you get some form of workout in, instead of doing nothing. But there's also something better. This is mind trick #4.
4) Do Tell Yourself - I'm Going To Stop When...
In the example with the treadmill, once I hit 10 minutes, if the "Calories Burned" says 114, I may tell myself - "Well heck, let's make it an even 150. Once I reach 150 calories, & I'm at say 1.3 miles... I may say - "Well heck, let's make it an even 1.5 or 2 miles." Before you know it, you got a good 20+ minute workout in, when you almost did nothing at all. You can use this trick for whatever workout you're doing. Sometimes, maybe you really do stop at the 10 minutes, or 12 or 15... But almost inevitably, we find that once we've worked out just a little bit we have more in the tank to push more.
5) Stay Off The Scale
This tip is more so to prevent the scale from playing tricks on you! We've all been disappointed before by a simple number on the scale. But the truth is that number doesn't really matter. A lot of times you can be making tremendous progress, but the scale may not have moved yet for a variety of reasons. The bottom line is this - you didn't put it on in a couple weeks. You won't take it off in a couple weeks. So be easy. If you're just starting a fitness program I wouldn't recommend to weigh yourself for at least a month. Better gauges of progress are your measurements, how your clothes fit and your energy level.
I use these 5 tricks all the time. I hope you find them helpful on your journey.
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