Declare your life a no guilt zone!

Guilt is an emotion that prompts us to start diets, break diets, go to extremes, and generally feel miserable.

What was it that made you want to lose weight? Did you have that dessert, and then come home and stare at yourself in the mirror, feeling awful about the way you look and completely guilt ridden over that one little indulgence?

The good news is, that losing weight works best when you make the choice to ditch those guilty feeling for good, and get into a healthy mindset instead!

Guilt = going to extremes

Have you ever had a little treat, felt awful about “giving in” or “being weak”, then decided you’ve blown your diet already so what’s the point in stopping there? Hello binge. And then even more guilt.

What if you had decided that you were making a conscious decision to treat yourself, with a plan to do a little more physical activity or have a few lighter meals the next day? You could savour the experience, enjoy indulging a little, take your time and really taste every bite, and then walk away satisfied.

Be kind to yourself

There’s sometimes a nasty little voice in our head that likes to tell us we are a failure, will never achieve our goals, we are unloveable, or worthless… and these thoughts pop up most when we have set ourselves unrealistic goals that we weren’t able to achieve, or put too many restrictions on ourselves.

If you instead make the decision that you will no longer talk to yourself this way, notice when an unhelpful thought presents itself, the rephrase that thought into an encouraging positive.

Negative thought: “I’m too weak to ever stick to a diet, I always fail at them”

Rephrase to positive: “I’ve learned a lot about what doesn’t work for me from past dieting, now I can plan better so I can succeed” 

Never “diet” again

The world diet immediately makes us feel deprived, which triggers our brain to immediately crave all the foods we aren’t allowed. A much better option is changing your mindset completely, to adopting healthy lifestyle changes instead.

Think of every glass of water you drink as clearing toxins from your body and helping you think clearly. Every piece of fruit or veg is infusing nutrients into your system that give you great energy. Lean healthy protein is helping you build strong, lean muscles. Walking to work is making you fit and extending your lifespan.

Educate yourself on healthy eating and the right portions, and then retrain yourself to have a positive thought for these healthy foods. After about a month, your tastebuds change to the sweet foods you used to love now taste sickening- the hot chips seem too salty and greasy, you notice they make you feel tired, have a headache, or just feel a bit yucky after having them.