The Mindset Changes During Weight Loss
You know the physical effects of weight loss, but what goes on upstairs?
Some people find weight loss easy, but for most of us it’s a challenge.
It’s a mental battle between your wants, needs, and desires.
That uphill climb is transformative as you come close to your true limits.
But if you quit short of your goal, you’ll never gain that knowledge.
Let’s take a look at what goes on in the mind at each step of the journey.
The Build Up
The true beginning is before you officially start.
It’s a mix of excitement and dread and motivation is very high.
You tell yourself and others about your weight loss ambitions.
You look far into the future, clarifying the vision of how you’ll look and feel.
You do all that subconsciously, to prepare for what’s to come.
You’ve psyched yourself up and enter the first month.
The First Month
For the first few days, you run solely on motivation and the right choices feel easy to make, but motivation eventually burns out.
Your decision here can determine your success as it’s the decision you're faced with throughout the entire cut.
Do you give into your self-limiting temptations or do you hold out a little longer?
The choice you make isn’t final but it sets the scene mentally.
If you fold this time, folding next time is even easier.
But if you don’t give in, you have all the more reason to keep pushing through.
The first month is the steepest part of the climb for most people.
You identify and make improvements to your lifestyle whilst the weight of your desires tries to drag you down.
One message is on repeat in your mind: “Don’t slip”.
The Middle Chunk
If you make it past the first month, motivation falls back down to normal levels.
Your fuel has to swap from motivation to willpower otherwise you’ll fail to continue.
The change in fuel source is interesting.
Motivation is more potent, but it’s short-lived.
Willpower is subtle, you have to extract it and concentrate it, and even then, it burns slowly.
However, your prior decisions determine the strength of your willpower.
The fewer times you give in to your temptations, the stronger your willpower becomes, and the easier it is to progress.
If you give in to your temptations frequently though, when motivation fades, your willpower lacks the strength to carry you through.
In this middle part, the longest part, it doesn’t get any easier, but you get stronger.
You enter into a flow state.
The training, the nutrition, and the lifestyle all begin to become habitual.
Your temptations are less tempting as you see your body changing every week.
You can’t give in now and ruin weeks of hard work.
The only logical path is to see it through to the end.
The End
Sometimes the end is planned, a date or a weight, and sometimes it isn’t.
Either way, seeing or feeling the end coming snaps you out of the flow state.
You have to play a more active role in engaging your willpower, assuring you won’t fall.
It’s the final trek to the peak and you’re excited and ready to reach the summit.
One final push, using the last reserves of your willpower and motivation.
And then you’re there, taking in the views and looking back down to see how far you’ve come.
But you turn around, look up, and realise this is just the beginning.
Final Thoughts
Cutting, or weight loss, can be a roller coaster, a journey full of ups and downs.
The only way to see true success is by creating and maintaining plans, routines, and habits for your lifestyle, which is what Cutting Concepts is about.
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