How a Positive Attitude Can Help You Lose Weight

We all know how important physical changes are in weight loss, but the overall state of your mind day to day can also have a huge impact on the state of your body.  This is largely due to the fact that your actions are usually inspired by your thoughts.

A negative attitude and pessimistic outlook will discourage you from taking the proper actions to improve your health and shrink your waistline, while a positive, optimistic attitude will keep you feeling motivated and empowered to do what’s best for your body.

There are two main areas to consider when it comes to your attitude: #1 - Your own thought habits

All of us have habits of thought that we stick to day after day.  If you have developed very negative thought habits, it will take a bit of effort to change them to more positive habits, but it can be done if you simply work at it daily.  Start by paying attention to any pessimistic, negative thoughts that keep coming up. 

For example, feeling discouraged about your workout routine because you aren’t making as much progress as you’d like.  Rather than letting this be an excuse for not losing weight, you can talk yourself into a better attitude by reminding yourself that persistence will help you make more progress, that no one gets fit in just a few short days, and so on. 

Any repetitive, negative thought patterns will make themselves clear soon enough if you just pay attention.  Once you recognize a negative thought habit, start turning it around by replacing the negative thoughts with positive thoughts.  It takes time and consistent effort, but you can make great progress this way.

See:  Empower Yourself with Positive Self-Talk

#2 - Your environment

If you are constantly surrounded by negative, pessimistic, critical people, it’s a good idea to do what you can to change that.  You may need to break off certain relationships that are no longer healthy or productive.  You may need to move if your residential environment isn’t healthy.  You may even need to change jobs if your work has become very stressful and unpleasant.  However, for most people drastic changes like these won’t be necessary. 

See: How to Set Personal Boundaries

Instead, do what you can to avoid negativity by refusing to be drawn into arguments.  Don’t watch the news on television unless there is something you desperately need to know.  Try to avoid watching very violent or depressing television shows and movies. 

Gravitate more toward uplifting, empowering programming, and encouraging, positive people.

After a few weeks of these efforts, you should notice something interesting - you are starting to feel better!  You may feel more positive and optimistic; you may even feel a bit stronger mentally and emotionally, and most importantly, you should notice that it seems easier to make healthy choices because you’re not overwhelmed by negativity.