The Health and Fitness Truth Blog

New Year’s has come and gone and I for one am glad! It marks the end of the gluttony of the holiday season, and the beginning of a great time to “restart” and recharge. Many of us will make health and fitness resolutions this time of year, but will those resolutions really stick? Historically speaking, research tells us no: that 60% of us will forget about our exercise plans by April. Can we beat this sad statistic? I believe we can, but only if we work on our internal “mindset” BEFORE we begin to work on outside physical changes.

We all have an internal tape that plays constantly, often negative words we have heard as a child, or words created and echoed by past failures or setbacks. We must change this negative mindset into a positive one- we must “spin” things in a way to convince ourselves that we are strong, we can override a bad day, even a bad week, with healthy choices, and that exercise and eating well are a joy, not a burden.

For example:

• If your internal tape says “I’m so tired, I do not have energy to exercise” spin this to “I’m a bit fatigued from my day, but exercise will make me feel energized. I can’t wait to get on my treadmill!”
• If your internal tape says “I only have 20 minutes to exercise, It’s not worth it” change that tape to say “I’m going to use these 20 minutes to get a little exercise in- something is better than nothing! I’ll feel so much better afterward!”
• If your internal tape says “I must go on a diet, I can’t be trusted to make choices for myself” change that tape to “I am looking forward to learning to eat well and trust myself. I don’t need to deprive myself. No one is perfect. If I can make small changes every day, this will make a big difference.”
• If your internal tape says “I hate salads, what I really want is French fries!” change that mindset to “Salad is really healthy for me, and I need my vegetables. French fries won’t give me the healthy vitamins and minerals I need today.”

Exercise adherence and nutritional success is 80% mental. What separates those who succeed and those who fail, are those who do the “internal” work first. Start today- make a list of all the negative things you may usually say to yourself, and change them to positive thoughts. Keep that list near and read and repeat the mantra when needed. It makes a huge difference!

Tags: fitness tips, healthy choices, Weight Loss

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 15th, 2008 at 12:12 pm and is filed under Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.