These 4 Mindset Strategies Helped Me Lose 70 lbs in 9 Months
You don’t need money to lose weight, but the right mindset
“I want to lose weight but don’t have the money.”
“I want to lose weight but hate going to the gym.”
“I want to lose weight but can’t give up on food.”
If you’ve ever told yourself any of the above or anything like the above, you’ve successfully fooled yourself.
Be honest; if you wanted to lose weight, you would have done something about it, and there would have been no scope for fooling around.
I had a humungous goal of shedding a jaw-dropping 70 lbs in under a year. But I did it.
I did it because I understood that weight loss is more of a mind game, and training your mind first and then your body is the real trick.
If it can work for me, it can for you, too, provided you tell yourself that.
1. Negativity = Motivation
“How did you put on so much weight? What happened?”
Not “Hello,” but that’s the first thing you hear from a friend or relative you’ve just met at a Sunday brunch.
Let’s face it — People are well aware of the harmful effects of fat shaming. Yet they indulge in it, sometimes knowingly and sometimes unknowingly. Either way, it’s hurtful.
Until now, all your energies were focused on “how to” deal with people who call you fat.
Change the approach: Instead, tell yourself how you can “use” the negativity of people that have called you fat. That’s what I did!
I used those negative comments by taking them as a challenge.
Challenging yourself pushes you to do more than you think you can, throwing you outside your comfort zone, which is sometimes very much needed.
Honestly, I wouldn’t have done much about my weight had all those not-so-subtle remarks about me being fat not fired me up to take action.
Negativity has the power to fuel your motivation — Use it.
2. Keep it simple — Start with what you already know
There are many diets and workouts to choose from, and many influencers offer many tips online. Still, trying to figure out where to start?
Stop: You’re overanalyzing, and that’s leading to inaction.
If the information on the internet is overwhelming you, then don’t use the internet!
Start with things you already know. But start. And I know you know the basics because you have theoretically consumed so much by now; you’re practically an expert.
- Take a walk
- Start watching what you eat — count calories, cut down the sugar, fried, etc.
- Introduce mini-workouts comprising exercises you’re already familiar with — it could be as basic as a warm-up we used to do back in school!
Do anything that gets you started. This will set the momentum, and you will begin understanding where your body stands. You will gradually learn to incorporate things once the ball is in motion.
3. Accept your limitations
I was living with my grandparents when I started my weight loss journey, and honestly, it never felt right to burden them with my life choices. And thus, I didn’t have access to any extra money to spend on a gym membership, dietician, food supplements, etc.
Things became easy when I accepted this. I stopped giving myself excuses.
- I only worked out using my body weight at home.
- I ate what my grandparents ate (those cute humans did all the right things)
And I still achieved the results I wanted.
Acknowledge your limitations and accept them. Doing so makes you work around them and concentrate on what you have instead of what you don’t!
4. Visualize the “New You”
When you are studying for exams or are in the middle of executing a stressful work project, visualizing the time after that task is over gives you this whole new motivation, and this helps you get through the task at hand.
Visualization makes you look forward to achieving your goal because it makes you experience that priceless feeling that follows after completing that task.
So, every time you feel like giving up, visualize the “ideal you” after your successful weight loss journey. When you do this, you’ll always stick to the plan and be ready to take on any challenge.
Only when we genuinely want to achieve something will our brains be rewired to give our 100 percent. That’s when you’ll focus more on the solution than the problem itself.
If you really want it, you’ll find a way. And remember, you can do ANYTHING!
