Are You Ready for Your New Year Diet?

Well Christmas Day has come and gone and maybe some of you are thinking about the food you've eaten. Maybe at the same time you have half an eye to the New Year and have decided it's time to shift a few pounds. Some of you may have much more ambitious goals. One way or another you may have decided you're going to go on a diet in the New Year.

Firstly good for you! You want something better for yourself and you've decided that January 1st will be your start date.

January 1st is a very ambitious day to start. So many people begin dieting right in the middle of one of the biggest eating times in the calendar. So that makes this a huge challenge. In fact some experts will say that New Years day is the worst time to embark on implementing a New Years Resolution, especially a New Year Diet. It's like a junkie going cold turkey right in the middle of his most prolonged period of drug abuse.

So yes, it's a big challenge. But it's not impossible. In fact, done correctly it can be quite manageable. The essential difference between those who succeed and those who fail at their diets is not those who start on New Years Day and those who don't. No. The difference between success and failure is more often down to those who have their head in the right place and those who don't.

So many people underestimate the power of the brain in achieving success where their diet is concerned. Too many people think it's all about food. Food is a part of it. Exercise is a part of it. But what makes you refuse certain foods? What makes you get of your chair and take a walk? It's your brain! It creates the conversation in your head that either makes you carry on past the fast food place or makes you pull into the drive through. It creates the conversation that propels you out of your seat or makes you reach for the remote. Everything, including your exercise or food decisions come from your brain.

Well here's a revelation.

You can control those thoughts and the successful dieters are those that have controlled those thoughts. If you're thinking seriously about getting back on the diet wagon this New Year, your brain is going to be vital. Fortunately this blog is all about that. So come back because I've so much to tell you. If you've got a friend who's talking about it, send them the link to this page.

The Constant Chit Chat in Your Mind

Here's something we know is there but we don't acknowledge it.

There is a constant stream of chit chat going on in your mind. It's incessant. It's always there. It's ongoing and its virtually never ending.

Whether you like it or not, it's there and it will keep on going. Basically you can't turn it off. At the end of the day it's you talking to - well you!

The trouble is, we often just let it drone on. This voice is so much a part of our lives that we almost forget that it's there. Sometimes we acknowledge it but do so almost with a shrug of our shoulders and the thought that there's nothing we can do about it.

The real problem is we don't often think about what it is and what it's saying. Because we believe we're so helpless in stopping it we don't clue in to what this voice really is.

As a result: We fail to realize that we do have some control over it

We often think that the voice is us talking to ourselves. That's only part of the story. It's actually our assumptions and habits talking to us. It's also the messages that our friends and families have drilled into us over the years. Every time they talk to us we take it in and eventually it gets added to the language of this tape machine playing constantly in our mind.

I guess your question (quite rightly) is "so what?" and also "what's this got to do with me being successful at losing weight this time"

The voice controls how you think either about everything or about certain things. It could be saying "You don't really need that extra piece of Pizza - have some water instead. It's okay you can refuse it" It could be saying "oh here we go. You know you don't want the pizza, but you're going to grab it aren't you? Jeez have you no self control? It's no wonder to can't stick to a diet".

What it says dictates (and I mean dictates) how you feel about yourself. And how you feel about yourself controls your level of success or failure, especially when you're changing your behavior in areas like diet.

So firstly I want you to acknowledge that the voice is there. Secondly I want you to listen to what it's got to say. Listen to the words it's using. Is it telling you you're fantastic or is it picking holes in everything you do? Is it using different words depending on what you're doing and how does it talk to you when you're thinking about your diet or setting New Year resolutions.

Don't worry I'm going to go over this some more so you can learn to change the voice in your head to help you.

Be Prepared to be Honest with yourself

I remember once being in an office listen to some people having a conversation. It wasn't about anything in particular as it seemed to cover a variety of subjects. The bit that stuck most in mind was when one of them said

"I can't work out why I'm not losing any weight"

Seems a fair enough comment except for the fact that she had just taken a bite out of a huge bar of chocolate.

It would have been rude to point out what seemed to everyone else to be obvious. Like so many people she's not alone.

Many people fight to lose weight, even though they seem to be obviously dieting. In fairness to this person, the reason was genuine invisible to them. I think it's also genuinely invisible to so many people who want to lose weight but don't seem to be enjoying success.

When I've talked to people for whom this is a problem they tell me they're counting calories, they're doing this and that. They're talking the lifestyle of the motivated dieter and it sounds great. However, when I spend any time with them I see totally different behavior. Portion sizes are bit larger than ideal, a quick snack here and there, cleaning up their own plates followed by picking the best bits from their child's plate (well can't have it going to waste can we)

What they say they're doing and what they're actually doing day to day are totally opposite to each other.

It's actually heartbreaking because for many, despite their actual behavior I think they actually believe their actions reflect their words, even though its clear they're doing the exact opposite.

I'll bet we've all seen this from people we know.

As I mentioned on the very first post in this blog, getting your head in the right place is absolutely vital to being successful in losing weight permanently. It's what this blog is all about.

To do that you need to be prepared to work on your mind. To make sure it's geared to help you succeed and to stay motivated, you need to know the best techniques that you can use every day. Get your mind on side and it will make lasting success at losing weight so much more likely. Get this right and you'll be so far ahead of every other dieter it's untrue.

What you therefore need to do in taking the first step is be prepared to be honest with yourself. Absolutely cold hard honesty. I'm not talking about beating yourself up. In fact I want you to learn to be positive with yourself. But honesty is what you need to take on board.

If you're going to lie to yourself, you're setting yourself up for failure from the outset. You'll be working against diet success from day one. The end result will be failure and you'll be setting another New Year Resolution to lose weight next Jan 1st.

So if you genuinely and truly are serious about losing weight, get ready to be honest with yourself. It's what truly successful people do. They don't beat themselves up. But, if they haven't done all they could do, they acknowledge that and determine to make it right next time.

Now this sounds a bit harsh but actually it's one of the most liberating things you can do. Once you start being honest with yourself, other things start to fall into place. Once you start being truly honest with yourself is the point you stop being afraid of yourself. And once you stop being afraid of yourself, you start to understand very clearly what steps you can take to work towards your success.

We're going to come back to this some more later as I'll go over the various principles time and time again so they become part of your everyday thinking.

But for now, just make a mental note that you'll prepare to be honest with yourself ready for your journey to losing weight forever.