Keys to Losing Weight Effectively Without Dieting

Ok, so you've got a few extra pounds following you around, well maybe more like 20 or 30, or maybe even 50 or more. And at the beginning of every new year you promise yourself you are going to take better care of your body, eat better, and lose that extra weight; the old "new you diet". You tell yourself that it won't be forever, just a few weeks or months of starving yourself, exercising and staying away from all the foods you love, and then you'll be back at your ideal weight. You are fooling yourself right into failing.

It always starts out good; the first day of your diet you eat a grapefruit for breakfast with a slice of whole wheat toast, jump on your new treadmill, eat a salad for lunch and are feeling great all through your day. Then you get home from work (starving) and say to yourself, "I'll just have a little snack before dinner to tide me over", and end up eating a whole bag of chips. Dinner ensues with a whole plate of pasta, sauce and extra parmesean cheese, with two slices of garlic toast, topped off with a few glasses of wine (hey, wine's good for you right?). After that huge meal you sit down for a little TV and wind up eating a pound of chocolate and ice cream, and going to bed feeling worse than you did before starting your "new you diet". You end up giving up on yourself before you've really even started, thinking that you just don't have the willpower to make it through. Let me give you a little head's up...it's not willpower that will get you to your ideal weight.

What's wrong with this picture? Why doesn't this "new you diet" work? Why do we always fail at these types of diets? Well, first and foremost we are going about it all wrong. We need the keys to losing weight effectively without dieting.

Key #1 to losing weight effectively without dieting; Changing our Minds

First we must realize that we are incredible beings. We can create or destroy ourselves any way we wish. The subconscious is a powerful part of your mind. You can control it through persuasion but not with brute force. Our minds are so much more powerful than we give ourselves credit for...and even when only using the 10% of our brains most of us regularly operate with. We have a limitless range of learning and aptitude for change. We can grow and become more than we ever thought we could if we just use our noodles.

So, key number one to losing weight effectively without dieting is changing our minds. How do we do that? It's not difficult if you have the right tools. The first tool we have is our mind, and we can actually trick our subconscious into behaving the way we want if we know how to teach it. Our subconscious minds learn very slow, and aren't very creative, though they do have an immense memory. On the other hand, our conscious minds are quick, creative and forgetful. We think that our conscious minds are in control, but really, most of the time we operate on our subconscious connections, and run on auto-pilot. So the trick is to teach our subconscious mind to LIKE exercising, not doughnuts and ice cream. How can we do that? Read on my friend, and you may be surprised how simple this is.

Key #2 to losing weight effectively without dieting; Changing our Emotional Responses

Our minds have a small, clever, conscious aspect that gives us the ability to reprogram our entire minds. Since our subconscious minds are very slow to learn and work solely on emotional responses, the best way to change our emotional responses about something is to slowly and repeatedly teach it to enjoy things that are good for us. What? Ok, here's an example: say you really like ice cream and every time you eat ice cream you are enjoying a pleasant emotional response. Your body is saying, "this ice cream is so yummy, it makes me feel good...eat more ice cream". That is a positive reinforcement for your body. You get a good feeling every time you eat ice cream so your body will crave it. If you think willpower can change that, think again. Your body (subconscious) is in much more control than you think...if you don't believe me, just skip a few meals, or jump in a freezing lake and tell me your body isn't very angry with you. Think willpower can win over that? Ha! No way. So, we have to be sneaky and tell our bodies while eating healthy foods how wonderful they make us feel, and really mean it. Do it over and over again until your subconscious learns that healthy food makes you feel good and the emotional response is ingrained into your mind. The same goes for exercise. Keep telling yourself while you are exercising that it feels so good, and it will release endorphins and all the good feelings that go with it. Soon, after practicing this method, your subconscious will "learn" that exercise feels good and the next thing you know, you'll love your workouts and will be eating healthy food for the fun of it.

So there you go...the keys to losing weight effectively without actually dieting are all in your head, and always have been. You are an amazing creature with abilities far beyond what you ever could have imagined. Good luck with changing your mind for better health and happiness!