A new episode of A Mind For Fitness is now here. In this episode, Ean gives the top five reasons why your low-carb diet may not be working.
Tag Archives: psychological
Another Attitude That May Be Keeping You Overweight
Since the new year, I have heard a lot of people talk about losing weight. Of course very few will take any sort of action toward getting healthy. But, there will be a group of people who attempt to change their weight for the better. Out of this group, a minority will succeed. But the majority will, unfortunately, fail.
This year, however, there has been one attitude in particular among those who want to lose wight that has caught my attention. It’s an attitude or a belief that if followed will most certainly result in failure to lose weight.
What is this attitude? It is best reflected in the statement, “All I need to do is make a few healthier choices.” What is the problem with this belief? I will get to that, but before I do, I want to make a quick exception regarding this belief.
If you have an ectomorph, or a mesomorph body type, and you have twenty pounds or less to lose, then you may be able to make a “few more healthier choices” and still get good results.
However, if you have more than 20 pounds to lose, and/or you have an endomorph body style, you need to do more than just “make a few more healthier choices.”
So what is wrong with this belief? First off it is is vague. What constitutes “a few more healthier choices”? Is it one low-carb meal a day? Is it cutting 50 percent of your bread out of your diet? Is it working out more than once a week? The only thing this belief offers is vagueness.
There is also another way this attitude is vague. It does not tell you what is nutritionally healthier. Some may think that eating less fat and more carbohydrates is a way to “make a few more healthier choices.”
Finally, there is a big dose of denial with this attitude. If you do have more than 20 pounds to lose and/or you have a thicker body style, you have to stop fooling yourself by thinking your excess weight is a result of a few bad choices. You health is not going to be fixed by a few more good choices.
In the end, following this attitude is just a cop-out. It is not taking your health seriously and leads to disappointment. If you have had this attitude, give it up. It will do you no good. Take control of your life and take control of your health.
I Was A Teenage Sugar Addict
I love sugar. In fact, some might consider me a recovering sugar addict. While I have overcome my addiction though mental effort and proper diet, I still have quite a sweet tooth.
Was I Really An Addict?
I’m not really sure I could classify myself as an “addict.” However, I did eat a lot of sugar. This consumption was particularly pronounced during my teenage and young adult years. While I do not know how much sugar I consumed on a daily basis, I have an interesting story from my past that will help illustrate just how much sugar I would use.
I think I was about thirteen years of age at the time. During this period of my life, I would often have two bowls of cereal for breakfast. One bowl would be a sugar cereal. Some thing like Captain Crunch or Cinnamon Toast Crunch. The other bowl would be a “non”-sugar choice. Something like Wheaties or Cheerios. I would add sugar to these latter choices because I just could stand the taste of them with just milk.
One morning I decided to eat the “non”-sugar cereal first. And of course I added my regular amount of sugar to the bowl. I ate the cereal and drank the milk. I was ready for my second bowl. It would be the sweet cereal this time. I did not need to add sugar because they were sweet enough on their own.
Upon taking my first bite, I realized that the milk was rotten! I had eaten an entire bowl of cereal and sour milk without even realizing it. How could I have not noticed? I had added so much sugar to my cereal that it covered the taste of rotten milk! That is a lot of sugar.
In a Better Place
Reflecting back on how much sugar I use to eat makes me appreciate how much healthier I am now. I still love the taste of sweet things. But now my cravings are under control and the future is looking good. I never want to go back to being a sugar addict.
A Mind For Fitness, Post Holiday Report
A new episode of A Mind For Fitness is available. In this Episode I talk about how much weight I gained during the holiday season and what I’m doing about it. Also, my new motivation for the new year. Hope you enjoy!
Starting Early on 2015
It’s the day after Christmas and I have a week to go before the new year. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were absolutely filled with abusing myself with food. And again, it is one week before the first of the year. It’s a week that I could enjoy all those foods I thought I had been missing out on. But I have decided not to do that. I have decided to get started on my weight loss goals before the new year.
Why have I decided to do this? Well, the simple truth is I am sick of unhealthy food. As many of you who frequent my blog know, I am a big proponent of a low-carb, high-fat diet which included scheduled cheat days. Cheat days are for both health and psychological reasons. And through this method, I have lost more than 60 pounds. However, during this season, I have just had too many high-carb foods and I can feel it in my body. I feel sick and am having a difficult time thinking clearly.
Being sick like this has brought one thought into my mind. That is: I cannot believe I use to eat like this all the time! When I was over weight, most of my meals were largely made up of carbohydrates and it did not bother me at all! Now, I can really feel it after just one full day!
So I am back to the diet that makes me feel and look great! My challenge to you is to start early too! You do not need to pig-out this week just because it’s a week before the new year. Start now! It’s worth it!
Cheating During the Holidays
A new episode of A Mind For Fitness Podcast is now up. In this episode, Ean Carlin gives you six ways to minimize the effects of all that cheating you are going to do!
Ultra Successful Weight Loss
There are four keys that help open up the door to ultra successful at weight loss.
Key One
The first key is to pick a plan or program. Of course you want to pick a program that is reasonable. You cannot pick the “I eat jelly donuts all day long” plan. Unless your goal is to put on massive amounts of fat. That said, there are many good programs out there that will help you lose weight. Check the link below to get the program I used to lose 64 pounds!
Key Two
The second key Is to follow that plan. Follow it as closely as you possibly can. Don’t cheat. If the program is 25 carbs a day, then consume only 25 carbs a day. You cannot blame the diet if you do not follow it.
Key Three
Monitor to see if what you are doing is working. This is where one has to be honest with him or her self. If what you are doing is working then keep going. However, if the plan is not working, then stop and implement the fourth and final key.
Key Four
The fourth key is change. That is to say do not be afraid to change if what you are doing is not working. Out of the four, this last one seems to trouble people the most. People just do not want to change plans.
There are two reasons for this. The first is due to the fact that changing plans (in the minds of many) is an like an admission of defeat. However, that is not true.Changing plans does not mean that a person has lost. Instead it means that a person is strong. It means that a person is flexible in their approach. It mans that a person is on the track to being successful.
The second reason is change for many means complete abandonment. But like the above misconception this is also not true. Adjusting a plan slightly is also a change.
For example, let’s say you were on a diet that allowed 40 carbs a day. You do not have to drop the whole plan. Just drop your carbs a bit and see what happens. But always remember to monitor your weight and don’t be afraid to readjust again.
Follow these four steps and pretty soon you will go from this
To this
A Mind For Fitness, Episode 5
In this episode, Ean gives advice on how to deal with people who want to see you fail. Also, goal setting for success.
http://amindforfitness.libsyn.com/dealing-with-people-who-want-to-see-you-fail
When to Get Help
We all need help. Whether it is help overcoming a craving or finding the motivation to workout, we all need help. The question is: When should a person seek professional help?
Reason One
This question is relevant to me for three reasons. First, I am the kind of person who needs help on a daily basis. Although, I rarely need professional help. Most of the help I need to stay on my weight-loss journey comes from the books I read and the podcasts I listen to. These seem to be enough, generally speaking, to keep me focused. And I can tell you, when I do not have these influences, I find myself slipping back into old habits very quickly.
Reason Two
The second reason is there was a time I did need professional help. It was only a few months ago. What was my problem? I had lost the motivation for working out. It did not matter how many podcasts I listen to, or how many books and articles I read. Even my favorite T. V. shows about losing weight were not helping. I would start a workout, and about five minutes into it I would give up. I lost my drive.
The good thing is I knew I needed help. So what did I do? I contacted an NLP practitioner. Within just a half-hour I was back on top of my game.
Reason Three
The third reason is I see people all the time who need professional help and refuse to get it. This became evident to me when I got to know a barista at a local coffee shop I frequent. Because I am there so often I have gotten to know many of the people in the shop on a personal basis. On one occasion, this barista asked me what I did for work. I told her I was in the health and fitness industry.
Over the years I have gotten to know her and her story. She is severely overweight and has had many health problems associated with her obesity–including serious ones! Of course, she asked me for advice. And I gave her some, the type of advice I do not mind giving out for free. I told her to cut back on her carbohydrates and other such general information. But, I also let her know that she needed to come and see me on a professional basis in order to really see change. However, she never has taken that step.
I see her quite often and she is always telling me about the latest diet she is trying. Is she ever successful on any of these programs? The answer is no!
I rarely talk to her anymore about her ongoing struggles. Now, whenever she tells me she is starting some new fad-diet, I simply smile and nod and tell her that I hope it works.
Will she ever see the results she hopes for? Not likely. Not without help. Will she ever get the help she needs? Well, it does not look good, but I always hope she will come to her senses.
Get The Help You Need
So here is my question to the reader: What kind of help do you need? Perhaps you only need a small amount of motivation that comes from listening to podcasts and reading books on the subject of weight loss. Or are you the kind of person who may need some professional help? How can you tell the difference? Well, is what you are doing working? If it is, then great! But if you find yourself constantly yo-yo dieting, or needing some extra coaching, then don’t fool yourself–get the help you need!
Closing
Advanced Weight Loss Resources is here for you. Whether you need coaching or specialized diet programs. Please contact us and get the help you need. It is worth your time to improve your health.
Why Didn’t I Start Sooner
I ran across an old picture of myself. In the picture, I was 26 years old. Today I am 41. That gives you an idea of how many years ago this was. But when I saw the picture, I thought to myself, why did I not start losing weight sooner? I came up with a few answers.
The first was I was severely self deceived and a bit delusional. What I mean by that is I really did not think I was I fat as I actually was. In my mind, wile I was not completely happy with the way I looked, I still did not think I looked that bad. After all there were people much fatter than I.
In conjunction with my delusion, I also made excuses. While I hated looking at pictures of myself, I would think, well the camera adds 10 pounds. I know I was making excuses and delusional because I do not mind looking at pictures of myself now. In fact, I’m a little vain about it.
Another reason, and probably the biggest reason is that I did not really want to lose the weight. Or to put it another way, I did not want to give up those things that were making me fat. Of course, if someone was able to wave a magic wand over me and make me thin, I would not object. But I did not want to give up all that high-carb food!
These issues were not unique to me. They are common to all sorts of people who need to lose weight, and I hear them quite often. I run into people all the time who say things like, “I only have a few pounds to lose,” when they actually have 50 to 100. Self deception and excuse making at work.
I hear people all the time say things like, “I only eat bread at lunch.” This is an indication that they really do not want to give up those things that are keeping them fat.
In order for people to lose weight, they must give up the delusions, stop making excuse, and love being healthy more than they love bad food. I know that it can be difficult because I did it. I only wish I would have done it sooner!
Advanced Weight Loss Resources 