Confidence is so much more than being confident in yourself, it’s about being confident in your choices.That’s not to say that you should be over confident in how well you’re doing, as doing so could really affect your how you believe you’re doing.

Essentially, If you tell yourself you’ve eaten well and worked out all week you’ll want to reward yourself. Be confident in yourself to know that you don’t need a reward after behaving. Come on now, you’re a grown up!

Underselling

You’ve heard the phrase “don’t undersell yourself”, probably in terms of work or effort that you put in. You think the job you’ve done isn’t good enough, so people will praise you to build you back up. Essentially it’s when you say something negatively, which ultimately impacts on the outcome for example.
“I bought this present for you, it’s nothing special“. This is underselling.

In terms of diet and weight loss, underselling puts doubt out there before you’ve had a chance to even to succeed.

This is where your own confidence comes in. Confidence is something so neglected when it comes to starting a diet,fitness routine but it’s something that ultimately is going to push you on to complete your goals. We often spend a lot of time planning how we’re going to lose weight, diet plans, workout routines and guides but we never prepare for the mental focus we need to have to achieve our goals. Give yourself the motivation and inspiration to push past your barriers and most importantly don’t undersell yourself.

Go in with confidence. “I can do this, I will do this”

 

Things you shouldn’t say:

I’m dieting / I’m just doing this weird diet . You’re putting a negative connotation on what you’re doing.

This is only for a week.  One of my biggest reasons for ‘quick dieting’ or even using the word, it’s negative as you’ve given yourself an end date, you’re expecting something after a week so you think you can stretch to extremes, impossible.Why not try something simple, like cutting out your evening sweet treat?

I don’t think I can do it, but I’ll try.  Do you think we put man on the moon with ‘trying’ no, we said we were going to do it and we did. Your health’s more important than ‘I’ll give it a bash’.

I’ll start tomorrow. Why, why push it back? You can start right now, at least plan. You can startpreppingg for tomorrows goals today. Grab a pen a pad and some lycra.

Things you should do;

Really learn what healthy eating is:
I’ve written about this on my blog plenty of times, explaining how eating healthily changes for each person differently so you really need to understand what works best for you. you can do this in several ways, trial and elimination and experimenting with new foods and diets but don’t ever feel restricted.

Stock-up
Buy everything you want to start eating, but do it gradually so you get used to these new foods and they become part of your day.
The most important foods you should swap out:
White potatoes, pasta and chips. for Sweet potatoes, Butter-nut squash, rice and courgettes.
Swap breakfasts from carb-filled cereals for protein-based food or fruit and vegetables.

Biscuits, I love a good biscuit, crumbly sugary goodness. It’s my biggest problem really, but I can swap biscuits out with (still not great) popcorn, I try to keep a small tub of lightly sugar’d and salted popcorn. So, Instead of eating 3 biscuits (145 calories) I can eat a tub of popcorn for around (80 calories) and feel somewhat fuller from eating a more time-consuming and fibre full food.

Instead of your boring day-to-day meals, try something new. Healthy foods can be exciting and filling, just try new things and find out what works for you.

Tell everyone you know will have your back.
Sharing your latest healthy habits will make certain that people know you’re serious about your health, stopping them from encouraging your unhealthy behaviours. It also encourages them to be healthier and will give them a push to start helping out too. Do you normally have a tin of biscuits or sweets at work? Why not bring in some fruit and nuts or even vegetable crisps for snacking on, after a few days of doing this, people will be used to it and it will become the norm, easily replacing high-sugar foods they were once used to.

Be honest with yourself.
Are you doing this for your health, or for weight loss? Seriously, if you say it’s for your health then you need to focus on this long-term and make small changes frequently.
If this is for weight loss, you can make more drastic changes (Food swaps, not cutting calories!) and gradually get used to them because you’re seeing the results.

Work hard.
I say this in terms of your eating habits, it’s hard work to eat healthy when those around you aren’t. This is for you though, so don’t ever say you’re doing your best or your working your hardest if you really don’t think you are. This way, you can really put your best judgement on your health, do you feel sluggish, is it because you’ve not been eating as well as perhaps you should?

Don’t be afraid to brag.
I love to brag (and don’t we know it ) …not because I’m cocky or over confident but I know that once I’ve said “I lost 3lbs” people will have their doubts in me and I’m so stubborn I won’t let them win. I won’t let their negativity impact me, so saying it out loud pushes me to continue on that path. OR they’ll notice when I start gaining some weight back. This one is a a bit of a self-motivator.

Why this works

When you’re telling yourself positive things constantly, your brain is overloaded with a pleasure hormone that decreases your appetite and increase your metabolism. When you feel good you do good. Your brain tells you to eat more vitamin rich foods and to move about more, reducing your caloric intake and increasing your calorie burn. So, be positive and burn some fat!

All of these things sound hard but mostly it’s just your brain working. As long as you’re confident in yourself and your choices you’ll find it a lot easier. Remember If you eat well, your body will feel well. Don’t feel ashamed of making mistakes in your diet, just focus on the long-term goals, it’s hard to eat healthy when those around you aren’t but make sure this is for you not for others.

Don’t open the door to failure.