“This is the last time”, you think to yourself, as you’re about to embark on another diet. You’ve been on several diets before. You lose weight, and then you regain it (sometimes more than you start with). You swear to yourself up and down that this next diet (which, by your count is diet #137) is going to be your last one.

You want everything that comes with losing weight:

Being able to fit into smaller clothes.
Being able to wear certain clothes that you either haven’t worn in years, or wouldn’t dare wear in your current shape.
Liking the way you look in pictures and in the mirror.
Higher energy levels, to get more done in your day, and maybe even perform better at work.
Volunteer more.
Play with your kids/grandkids more.
But your weight is standing in the way of achieving that. This time, however, you’ve found the diet. Your friend(s) lost all kinds of weight on it, and this time it will be different.

Though in the back of your mind, you know that it’s just going to be like every other diet, but with a different name. That’s because of the psychology around dieting. Just think about the language of dieting. We say that we’re going “on” a diet. Does that imply that at some point we’ll go “off” the diet? Presumably when we reach our ideal weight? We’ll just return to the way of eating we had before the diet, but the weight will magically stay the same as it was on the diet?

You’ve heard the cliché that it’s not a diet, but a lifestyle change. That’s nice and all, but how do we make it practical? The big mindset shift that I preach during my online group coaching program, called End Emotional Eating, is to think of healthy eating not as dieting, but as skill practice.

Think of any skill that you’ve learned in the past. Whether it’s driving, playing an instrument, playing a sport, the skills necessary to do your job, or anything else. There were certain elements that you put together step-by-step to make you successful at that skill. What if you applied that same methodology to healthy eating?

Let’s take a look at how you’ve mastered different skills:

YOU BROKE IT DOWN
If you were first learning how to play the piano, you didn’t just take a single lesson, and suddenly you’re a virtuoso. Rather, you probably learned certain notes, scales, and more, over many lessons. You isolated one small skill to practice in that lesson. Then, after 1-10 lessons, when you mastered that small skill, you picked a new skill to practice. And you kept repeating this process until you became proficient at playing the piano.

What if you applied this same process to healthy eating? 

If you want to read the rest of this article, visit: The mindset switch that will ensure fat loss success

About the Author

Igor Klibanov is the author of 7 books on exercise and nutrition, and the CEO and founder of Fitness Solutions Plus. He is a sought-after wellness speaker, having delivered over 400 presentations to some of Canada's largest corporations. Get a free PDF version of his book, STOP EXERCISING! The Way You Are Doing it Now - http://www.fitnesssolutionsplus.ca/stopexercising