THE RIGHT MIND SET (Weight Loss)

GETTING INTO THE RIGHT MIND SET

Believe it or not, there is a psychological factor that comes into play when you’re trying to lose weight. We like to compare it to the “rah rah” factor that you sometimes need to succeed in sports.

Look at your weight loss as your own personal sporting event. Just as you need to know the rules of the game as well as the basics of performing that game in sports, you also need the right information in your diet to make it effective.

When you have all the tools you need, you can become an excellent performer in almost anything you try in life. One of these tools is the right frame of mind. The right frame of mind will give you motivation, commitment, and the skills you need to overcome the obstacles that you might face along with temptations and distractions.

Think this sounds a little too “new age” for you? Think again! When you have the right psychology during your weight loss journey, you will make your weight loss fun, easier, more exciting, and be able to develop changes towards a healthier lifestyle that will stay with you forever.

Your mindset controls your behavior, actions, and thoughts. As people grow, they develop habits and associations that govern their life. Most of these habits are controlled by our sub-conscious and we are generally unaware of them. However, your subconscious could also sabotage your efforts – also while you unaware of them. This can be detrimental to your weight loss attempts.

The right mindset entails using various techniques and strategies to control your behavior by monitoring your thoughts and actions. When you obtain this mindset, you will be better equipped to replace the old habits and associations that formed your thinking in the first place with new and more positive habits that will enable you to lost weight and be happier while you do so!

Developing the correct mindset doesn’t occur overnight. It take a little bit of effort, but in the end, it is well worth the time you’ll spend doing so. You will have to regularly monitor your progress and behavior. Sometimes it will be easy – at other times, it won’t. The good news is that there are some easy ways to begin to put yourself into the right mindset.

1. Write your goals down – tell yourself what weight you want to get to. While you’re at it, write down any other personal goals you might have as far as your life in general. Since you’re undertaking something as huge as losing your extra weight, you may as well also focus your efforts on improving other aspects of your life while you have the motivation and drive.

2. Be specific about what those goals are. When you generalize your goals, you are trivializing them. Your goals ARE IMPORTANT. Make them important!

3. Assign yourself a deadline. You want to lose weight. You want to do it by Christmas, or your wedding, or the next class reunion. When you assign a deadline, you give yourself a goal to work for, and like we said, your goals ARE IMPORTANT!

4. Make those goals measurable and achievable. Don’t think TOO big or try to undertake more than what you are capable of. If you need to lose 100 pounds, don’t expect to do it in a few weeks. Give yourself enough time to do so in a healthy manner. You could also try to break the goals down into easier increments. Tell yourself that you will lose 10 pounds over the next month. Then tell yourself the same thing the next month. Eventually, you’ll reach that goal and feel the satisfaction of being lighter than you were before.

5. Focus on those goals everyday. Post them on your refrigerator. Write them in your date book. Put a reminder on the visor of your car. When you focus on your goals, you will keep them in mind all the time and when they are first and foremost in your mind, you will be well on the way toward achieving them.

6. Be committed to those goals – at all costs. There’s a reason why you want to achieve those goals. When you are committed, those goals become the focus of your mind and they will be much easier to realize.

The battle with our metabolism as we age can’t be denied. Our metabolism, which transforms our food into energy, slows down with each passing year. If we don’t adjust our eating habits and our exercise to compensate, we slowly add additional pounds. We may feel betrayed, but the reality is we’re going to have to change some habits in order to maintain our weight.
If you take things one step at a time, there are basic steps that can be adopted. Stop telling yourself, “I just can’t do it.” You can coax yourself into a new habit of healthy eating.

Developing a psychology towards weight loss will help you achieve you goals and realize success. Aim high, push yourself to become the type of person you want to be and live the life that you want and deserve. We are not given the power of dreams without the power and ability to achieve those dreams. It’s time to start – RIGHT NOW!

METABOLISM AND YOUR WEIGHT

METABOLISM AND YOUR WEIGHT

You likely know your metabolism is linked to your weight. But do you know how?
Common belief holds that a slim person's metabolism is high and an overweight person's metabolism is low. But this isn't usually the case. Metabolism alone doesn't determine your weight.
Rather, weight is dependent on the balance of calories consumed versus calories burned. Take in more calories than your body needs, and you gain weight. Take in less and you lose weight. Metabolism, then, is the engine that burns these calories and is the scale that regulates your energy needs.

Stated simply, metabolism is the process by which your body converts food into energy. During this biochemical process, calories — from carbohydrates, fats and proteins — are combined with oxygen to release the energy your body needs to function.
The number of calories your body burns each day is called your total energy expenditure. The following three factors make up your total energy expenditure:
• Basic needs. Even when your body is at rest, it requires energy for the basics, such as fuel for organs, breathing, circulating blood, adjusting hormone levels, plus growing and repairing cells. Calories expended to cover these basic functions are your basal metabolic rate.
Typically, a person's basal metabolic rate is the largest portion of energy use, representing two-thirds to three-quarters of the calories used each day. Energy needs for these basic functions stay fairly consistent and aren't easily changed.
• Food processing. Digesting, absorbing, transporting and storing the food you consume also takes calories. This accounts for about 10 percent of the calories used each day. For the most part, your body's energy requirement to process food stays relatively steady and isn't easily changed.
• Physical activity. Physical activity — such as playing tennis, walking to the store, chasing after the dog and any other movement — accounts for the remainder of calories used. You control the number of calories burned depending on the frequency, duration and intensity of your activities.

It may seem logical to think that significant weight gain or being overweight is related to a low metabolism or possibly even a condition such as under-active thyroid gland (hypothyroidism). In reality, it's very uncommon for excess weight to be related to a low metabolism. And most people who are overweight don't have an underlying condition, such as hypothyroidism. However, a medical evaluation can determine whether a medical condition could be influencing your weight.
Weight gain is more likely due to an energy imbalance — consuming more calories than your body burns. To lose weight, then, you need to create an energy deficit by eating fewer calories, increasing the number of calories you burn through physical activity, or preferably both.

If you and everyone else were physically and functionally identical, it would be easy to determine the standard energy needs. But many factors influence calorie requirements, including body size and composition, age, and sex.
To function properly, a bigger body mass requires more energy (more calories) than does a smaller body mass. Also, muscle burns more calories than fat does. So the more muscle you have in relation to fat, the higher your basal metabolic rate.
As you get older, the amount of muscle tends to decrease and fat accounts for more of your weight. Metabolism also slows naturally with age. Together these changes reduce your calorie needs.
Men usually have less body fat and more muscle than do women of the same age and weight. This is why men generally have a higher basal metabolic rate and burn more calories than women do.

Your ability to change your basal metabolism is limited. However, you can increase daily exercise and activity to build muscle tissue and burn more calories.
Your metabolism influences your energy needs, but it's your food intake and physical activity that ultimately determine your weight.
Losing weight, like any task you undertake, requires that you have dedication and motivation to succeed. This means you need to get your head in the right place.

Moving Closer toward Spiritual Nirvana

Moving Closer toward Spiritual Nirvana

Every journey has an end and each undertaking you get yourself into has a goal to be achieved at the end. As you go through the process of spiritual empowerment, you do not only get yourself to experience freedom and independence but you move close to nirvana as well.

What is Nirvana?

Nirvana is said to come from a Pali word meaning, “blowing out”. Thus, this means that a person experiencing nirvana has blown out greed and hatred and is free from suffering. In Buddhism, Nirvana is said to be a state where a person achieves and experiences perfect peace of his own mind and frees himself from cravings, anger, and other afflictions. He also becomes at peace with the world, gives kindness and consideration to other people, and does not obsess with physical things anymore.

How Is It Achieved?

According to the Pali Canon, nirvana can be achieved in many ways. First, it can be achieved from insight and self-awareness alone or it can be achieved through understanding. Nirvana may also be achieved through the deeds and righteousness that a person has as well as the virtues, understanding, and consciousness. It can also be achieved with some effort and concentration or through the four foundations of mindfulness, which include the body, sensations, mind, and mental contents.

If you summarize all of these things, the path to spiritual empowerment, which ultimately leads to nirvana, is the same as the Threefold Training of Buddha, which included wisdom, mental development, and virtue. A person who is able to lead a life with the right speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, concentration, understanding, and intention is sure to be able to reach the right path to enlightenment. When this happens, the person is not anymore attached to the material world and has found a different kind of happiness and contentment in their lives.

Striking the Balance between the Inner and Outer Aspects of Your Body

Striking the Balance between the Inner and Outer Aspects of Your Body

Being spiritually empowered brings us not only to awareness of ourselves but also of others and our surroundings as well. However, there are times when these concepts could clash, which is a reason why balance must be maintained between the two.

The Inner Aspects of the Body

An enlightened person becomes more fully aware of his own self, his body, his capabilities as well as the limitations and flaws. However, a person who is spiritually empowered is able to accept whatever weaknesses they have, work on it and make it a stepping stone for improvement and not as a hindrance.

The Outer Aspects of the Body

While there are needs in the body that has to be fulfilled, we must also remember the others that we have to think of as well. You may have experienced freedom and independence for yourself but this is useless when you see around you that the people are not having the same experience. This is a time when the principles that you wish to live by begin to clash

Striking a Balance between the Two

Usually, people who have experienced this freedom would also want to impart in others what they too have experienced. It is not enough to be able to feel happiness within one’s self but in the interaction with other people as well. This would ensure that person that he is not only working things for himself but also to his surroundings, thus creating a balance.

In addition, happiness felt within oneself is incomplete if the person finds that his surroundings could not give him the happiness and enlightenment that he had worked so hard to achieve. It is for this reason that these people also try to spread and teach what they know so that a balance between the happiness of the outside and inside aspects of the body is achieved.