Put Yourself Unselfishly First to Lose Weight

How you eat, feel and react will influence how your brain communicates with your body. Although weight gain might seem like a belly-fat problem, your brain is on the biggest obstacles to losing weight and keeping it off. Make your health and well-being a priority by creating a detailed action plan and ultimately the new eating behaviors will become a routine part of your day.

With a detailed plan, results will follow. Unfortunately, if you become obsessed with negative thoughts, you may create a self-fulfilling prophecy that immediately sets the stage for weight loss failure. A study on obesity and depression published in the Archives of General Psychiatry concluded that food disorders are directly linked to weight gain, as your desires change dramatically when you're depressed.

• Listen to Your Body - A study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism suggests obese people are more likely to regain any weight loss due faulty hormonal signals regarding fullness.
• Exercise Can Be Fun - Instead of exercising to lose weight, set a goal to participate in an event or activity. Once your focus shifts to getting ready for something you want to do, the motivation should be there to get you going every day
• Mindful Based Eating - Don't give up on your deepest heart desires in order to please others. Put yourself "unselfishly" first and make sure you honor your own desires. It is not selfish to say no to others for self-preservation.
• Be Accountable - When you exercise willpower, it is applying a key source of inner strength to allow you to proceed through life's challenges, especially your health and fitness goals.
• Believe in Yourself as a Healthy Eater - An effective diet requires a menu plan that manages your caloric intake to a level where you are taking in less and expending more. So, use the tools you have like establishing accurate portion sizes ahead of time.

Participants in an obesity study who admitted to using food as a coping mechanism admitted greater difficulty in trying to overcome their current eating behaviors to break common food addictions. Using your willpower to overcome cravings and develop a better mental attitude about food can help you improve the way you eat and how you think about health and wellness.

Losing weight and keeping it off can be tricky. People respond differently, so no single approach works for everyone. You need to develop your own healthy relationship with food to curb emotional triggers and avoid overeating. Once you accept your mission to improve your health and well-being, losing weight and keeping it off will become a lifestyle issue rather than blindly following an ineffective fad diet.