Memorial Day and the official start of summer are just a few weeks away, but maybe you’re not ready to hit the pool or beach because you’re embarrassed by those few extra pounds.
Steve Siebold, author of Die Fat or Get Tough: 101 Differences in Thinking Between Fat People and Fit People, says these 10 tips can help anyone stick to their diet, lose the weight and improve their health:
- It’s an all or nothing approach: 99% compliance is failure when dieting. Sounds harsh, but in order to break old habits, you can’t let them in the door for even a second. You wouldn’t cheat on your spouse in a committed relationship, so don’t cheat on something as important as your diet.
- Get brutally honest with yourself: Take off all your clothes and stand in front of a mirror. If you don’t like what you see, it’s time to do something about it. This is called operating from objective reality and avoiding delusion.
- Adopt the mantra of “I am responsible:” Understand that the hero on the white horse isn’t going to come riding in to save you from obesity. Only you can save yourself by growing up emotionally and making the decision to get healthy once and for all.
- Seeing is believing: Create a vision board filled with lean and sexy people and hang it in a very visible location. Whenever you feel discouraged, motivate yourself by looking at the vision board.
- Use past failures as fuel: Don’t wallow in your present day weight problem as this keeps you from tapping into your emotional motivation. Get grounded in the present but focused on the future. Use failures of the past to propel you forward.
- Stop starting over: Stop letting yourself off the hook. Stop starting over and telling yourself you’ll do it next time. There is no next time, only this time right now. You said next time, last time, and allowing yourself the luxury of continually quitting is a deadly habit.
- Eat for health: Stop seeing food and meal times as a pleasurable activity. Fit people always ask the question: “How is this meal going to affect my health?” Be smart and make conscious decisions that will keep you fit and healthy.
- Get around fit people: You are who you associate with. If you spend time around couch potatoes who want to do nothing but lounge around all day, that’s going to hold you back. Get around fit people who will inspire you to eat right and workout.
- Get a support person: A workout buddy is a good idea, but an even better way to go is to find someone to coach you who has already accomplished what you’re after, and to make sure they push you to reach your goals. Don’t find someone who will be nice. Find someone who will help you get results.
- Know that many diets work perfectly well: People have a difficult time accepting their own behavior so they blame their diet. That’s no different than a college graduate begging for money on the street and then blaming the school for his failure to succeed. Grow up emotionally and develop the mental toughness to stick to a diet once and for all. Many diets work perfectly well.
