Have you ever wondered why it is that some people fail to lose weight or to keep the weight off once they’ve lost it - while their neighbor, who followed the same diet and workout was far more successful?
Well, telling you what the ‘key’ or the ‘secret’ is, isn’t difficult, however taking action on this principle might be the hardest thing you ever do.
You see, the key to all success when it comes to weight loss, health enhancement, muscle building, energy increase, and so on … has nothing to do with exercising more, or dieting harder – in fact it has nothing at all to do with either of those two techniques.
I’m certainly not saying that diet and exercise aren’t vital aspects of good health and building a tight, lean, sexy body – but there’s one additional aspect that helps you lose weight much faster, and literally makes your weight loss permanent…
…and that ‘key to success’ is to alter your mindset as it relates to your body.
Most people think negative thoughts about their body, they dislike working out, they hate to follow a healthy diet, and they certainly don’t enjoy avoiding those things that caused them to gain weigh in the first place – but there’s a way to fix all this and set yourself up for lifelong success – and to me that means living life in the body you deserve to live life in – a strong, healthy, tight body – a body that others admire – a body that you’re proud of – a body that’s full of energy all day every day.
Here’s the formula:
1. Fix in your mind the precise goal you wish to reach, and make sure that it’s something that’s both measurable and specific. A vague goal, such as “I want to be fit,” gives you nothing to shoot for. Decide when and what you are going to achieve, such as “I want to reduce my body fat by two percentage points by the 1st of September.” Be sure to take whatever steps are needed to assess your progress. In this example, you need to know your current percentage of body fat (get it tested—it shouldn’t cost more than $20 at any good health club) and then monitor it on a weekly basis thereafter.
2. Determine exactly how you are going to achieve your goal. This step of the goal-setting process calls for some planning on your part, since you’ve got to know how the Maximize Your Metabolism program will play out in your life.
Set short-term goals as steppingstones to your ultimate (long-term) goals. If your long-term goal is to be able to bench press 200 pounds within a year’s time, set short-term (weekly or monthly) goals for the weight you will need to be able to bench press at each stage in order to achieve your long-term goal. In other words, develop a plan. It’s a lot easier to limit yourself to thinking about accomplishing your goal just a little at a time, such as increasing your bench press by 2.5 or 5 pounds a week, than to have the specter of the whole thing (such as increasing your bench press by 50 pounds) hanging over your head.
3. Select a timetable for the attainment of your goal. Predicting the rate at which weight loss will occur, through caloric restriction and increased physical activity, will take some calculation and some imagination on your part.
Without a timetable to plot your course, it will be difficult to make firm connections between the fading past and the unseen future. To make this association more explicit, keep a logbook of your dieting progress. Although these dieting diaries are sometimes viewed as tedious, pencil-pushing exercises, they’re quite valuable, not only for charting progress but also for reviving spirits that flag and re-energizing motivation that founders. Besides, it can be fun—perhaps even educational—to read them in later months or years.