The Shocking Reason why Your Waistline is Directly Influenced by Your Mind

We all know the drill. In order to get smaller waistlines, we need to watch our diets and work out much more often. After all, isn’t that what every other magazine and trainer has told us? The thing is, they’re right. However, what they haven’t told us yet while on our road to leaner bodies and slimmer waistlines is that we need to change our mentality, and this is definitely the most important principle to learn!

Changing how we perceive the weight loss process is the first step we need to make even before we start our journey. By learning how to appreciate what exercising and eating healthier can do to our body and mind, we are able to see the weight loss process as a sure thing waiting to happen.

A strong mentality is just as important as any other physical measure we can take to achieve success

The Dread

When one decides to workout persistently, a lot of dedication is usually involved. Working out has its merits, and those who frequent gym spots can attest to improved cardio and strength build up over time.

However, for newbies, the whole workout thing can be a little bit strenuous to go through altogether. The weighing scale is usually used as a yardstick to measure progress. When we’re not able to distinctly tell the difference between our pre-workout and post-workout selves, we might get frustrated.

Once frustration creeps in, we may resort to managing everything we eat. Researchers have shown that there are consequences to motivating ourselves using our frustrations. Oftentimes, it might not help to always fret about what we didn’t eat and how much exercise we never really make.

Guilt-tripping ourselves about that extra pizza slice we ate can, of course, help us in doing much more intensive workouts the next day, just to burn the extra calories. No one can deny that when people do this, they have the best intentions at heart. However, once we create an association of reward and punishment between what we eat and how we work out, we’re soon bound to start dreading both.

Effectiveness

Regular exercise always trumps strained workouts, no matter the duration

Numerous research has shown that exercising can sometimes be the worst way to achieve weight loss. Rather, a balance needs to be struck between what we eat versus the amount of energy used up during exercise. When we work out, we tend to shed calories due to the conversion of carbohydrates and fats into energy sources. However, when the amount of energy we eat outweighs our work out, weight gain is inevitable!

We should bear in mind that the best way to go is by appreciating the close relationship between food and exercise. Ultimately, it is all about our health. If we’re looking to effectively lose weight, the best steps to take would be by starting small. For example, a 20-minute jog every day over the course of a couple of months will be helpful in the long term. It is of course much better than that failed workout every fortnight.

Regular sweating sessions help improve cardiovascular operation and prevent other avoidable ailments like diabetes and cancer. In order to strike a healthy balance, we should constantly check our diet and our physical training plan.  The underlying principle is that exercise is not meant to be used as a means to slim down, rather than as a means to achieve improved health.

Fun

Having a positive attitude towards your weight loss process and seeing it as a fulfilling, fun engagement, can bring a real difference in our progress

Adopting this strategy is a sure fire way to bring back the fun in our everyday routines. Even though this means we’re going to be more careful than we used to on what we decide to include in our everyday meal plan, in the big picture, we won’t think much ado about it. Why? Because we’ll always be aware of the health benefits our diet and regular workouts bring to us.

Researchers have shown that having positive thoughts on what we eat and our exercise habits is the single greatest weapon to fight weight gain. Exercising with the sole intent of losing weight may lead to a lack of motivation once we don’t shed off weight. Consequently, we may even find ourselves in a stress-eating situation. More food and less exercise will offset the balance. At the end of the day, individuals seeking to slim their waistlines may find themselves back on square one. From the aforementioned, a mental shift is what we should all look for when trying to achieve a healthy, fit-looking physique.