Tune in to the goal! 5 psychological tricks for successful weight loss

Imagine a situation: your friend (or you yourself) decided to improve her figure, for example, from January. I started eating healthy food, went to bed on time … And a couple of weeks (or even days) later I stopped. Little time. Lots of stress. Fatigue. Abstraction. But you never know the reasons! Does this mean that she (or you) is weak, cannot control herself? No. Is it possible to somehow achieve what you want and not back down? Yes!

Experts believe that if you want to change your life (eat right, play sports), you need to form a habit. And one, not five at once! This takes at least 21 days, but it can take as long as a year. And if you constantly force yourself to do the right thing on all fronts, pretty soon you will run out of strength - and you will have to give up everything. Here's how you can add a new healthy habit to your life.

1. Rate desires

For example, you sit in the evening and meditate on a slice of pizza. The desire to eat it comes into conflict with the desire to lose weight. Think how and why you feel. Maybe it's stress, boredom, anxiety, and not a desire to eat this particular slice of pizza? Is there something that will improve your mood faster and without feeling guilty? Let's say a call to a friend or a good movie. And pizza will give way to salad. In any case, with a considerable degree of probability, you will be able to make a "healthier" decision.

2. Change the direction of your thoughts

Many people who have got rid of tens or even hundreds of kilograms with the help of surgery cannot resist the constant desire to eat. But those of them who are learning to enjoy a new body and its capabilities (at least in terms of movement) try to walk more and more often replace sweets with apples. When you learn to readjust your thoughts to the desire to eat something healthy, it will be easier to lose weight.

3. Introduce your goal

Most people, between a big sweat and a small one, will now choose a small one. But research shows that imagining a future figure is easier to achieve. In one experiment, those who saw themselves as being more exercised or well-nourished based on a healthy lifestyle were more active than those who were not asked to use their imaginations. Experts recommend making collages and motivating drawings in order to be more willing to improve your own body.

4. Stop fighting yourself

One of the biggest problems with willpower is that you have to present each choice as a struggle between yourself and the ideal. And few win in it. A thought like "Nothing will happen if I eat a couple of chips" quickly turns into "Once you start, you can finish the pack." It is important here that the body and brain work together and focus not on what they shouldn't, but on what they can eat.

5. More positive

An important part of habit formation is rewarding. When you give yourself a reward for a behavior, the brain releases dopamine, which increases the desire to repeat success.