Attitude and Weight Loss

Earl Nightingale considered it The Magic Word.

Bob Proctor says it’s the composite of your Thoughts, Feelings & Actions – and, it ultimately determines your results.

William James said the greatest discovery of his generation was that; “human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind.”

Talk to any successful person and they’ll tell you that attitude is the number one factor.

What does this have to do with fat loss, fitness and looking great naked?

It’s real simple.  If you have a bad attitude about exercise, nutrition, your genetics, your schedule, or anything else that plays a factor in you achieving your fat loss and fitness goals you will never consistently do what needs to be done.  You won’t have the necessary weight loss mindset to achieve your goals.

I’ve always believed that the difference between successful people and unsuccessful people comes down to two things:

1. Successful people focus on the end result, while unsuccessful people complain about or simply don’t do the tasks.
2. Successful people expect to win, while unsuccessful people expect to fail.

You see, every end goal is reached by performing a series of tasks that lead up to the desired result.  When it comes to weight loss and fitness those tasks are pretty straightforward:

• Move more
• Eat Less

Now, what I mean by that is you have to burn more calories than you consume.   But, before we go on, let me be clear that eating less doesn’t necessarily mean eating less.  Huh?  Starving yourself is NOT the answer.  In fact, it’s actually counterproductive, but we’ll save that for another post.  I’ve seen many cases where I’ve had to INCREASE a person’s calorie intake to get them to lose weight, but they’re still consuming fewer calories than they burn – moving more and eating less.  Get it?

OK, let’s get back on track.  If you understand the science (at least on the most basic level – move more, eat less), BUT you have a poor attitude about weight loss (you’re not in a weight loss mindset) you’re never gonna be able to lose the unwanted fat and build lean muscle for that sexy, “toned” body that looks great naked.

Why?  Because you won’t do the necessary tasks (or you won’t do them effectively) to lose the fat and build the muscle.  You’lll skip workouts and the one’s you do make will be half-assed.  You’ll eat right sometimes, but more often than not, your binges will negate any good eating you did that week.

To make matters worse, if your attitude is poor you’ll expect to fail anyway (since that’s your history) so why really try – “If I don’t try,I can’t fail.”

Goals are accomplished by completing the right series of steps, or tasks, so TAKE ACTION!

Here’s the bottom line:  if your genetics suck or your work and family schedule are super-busy there’s not much you can do about it, BUT what you can do is CHANGE YOUR ATTITUDE about it.  Lock yourself into that weight loss mindset!

How?  Start by reprogramming your thinking with good information like the information you’ll find on this blog.  Second, seek out other great resources on positivity and personal achievement.  Naturally being biased, I’m a fan of my book, The Science of Getting Fit (available later this week), so I strongly recommend you begin there.  I’m also a huge fan of personal development material by Bob Proctor, and one of my all-time favorite books is As a Man Thinketh, by James Allen.  You can get a free copy at www.asamanthinketh.com.  Lastly, if you haven’t read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People you must.

So, if you’re not seeing the results you want – fat loss, muscle gain, better performance, greater health, and/or a great looking body – stop and ask yourself or someone who will be honest with you, “How’s my attitude?”

YOUR ATTITUDE DETERMINES YOUR ALTITUDE IN LIFE

Have Faith & Take Action!

Justin Yule, B.S., CPT

Your friendly neighborhood Chaska boot camp instructor and online personal trainer

Burn 9x more fat at a fraction of the cost of other personal training programs.

P.S. – What kind of changes have you seen in your life when you’ve changed your attitude?  How about someone close to you?  Be sure to share your thoughts and experiences by posting a comment to this blog post.  Thanks!