Thursday, July 09, 2009

Losing the Loser Mentality

It’s time to lose the loser mentality. I’ll start my diet Monday. The loser mentality, simply defined, is the all-or-nothing approach that keeps the diet industry in business. It’s the notion that when you slip, when you experience a moment of weakness and enjoy something strictly forbidden, like a card carrying member of AA, you’ve blown your sobriety and you return to step one. It’s over. You’ve blown it.

Begin again. Start anew. Fineto. When we have been conditioned to adopt the “loser mentality”, we view “dieting” as a temporary prison sentence, a grounding, a period of deprivation, a testing of wills; during which you practice abstinence. Then, one day you can’t take it anymore, you resolve to have just one handful of chips. That’s it. Just a taste. Five handfuls later, your diet is over. Your mentality shifts. You’re free. You think to yourself, “Well, I’ve blown it, so I might as well eat what I want. I’m having a burger, fries and dessert tonight!” By 9 pm of the same day, your stomach is full and your morale is low. Disgusted with yourself for failing once again, you decide your diet is officially over.

You are going to thoroughly enjoy yourself. You’ll start a new diet after your up coming vacation. You spend the next month gaining back the 8 pounds you lost on the last diet, and 3 more for good measure. Now you have more to lose than when you started. You’re over-weight. You feel obligated to live your life on the diet rollercoaster. You never really expect lasting results. You long to find the magic potion and get excited about the promises. However, secretly you expect defeat even before you begin. I’ll try this for a while.
That’s the loser mentality. As of today, you’ll practice it no more.

This time it’s different. This is NOT a diet. This is your diet, meaning simply…the way you eat. Oh sure, I had to package it as a diet book to get you to buy it, but if this is going to work for you, once and for all, you have only one option. You do it. You don’t try. You live it. You adopt and enjoy it. You change your attitude. You change the way you think and your feelings about your new eating habits. You gain control over your body, your weight, your health and your life.

This is your new improved way of life. This is the winner’s mentality.

As you shift your thinking, you will understand that you have total power over your menu, your food, your exercise and the speed of your transformation. You will experience a peace and comfort, which will get you excited about the positive effect this will have on every aspect of your life! Every aspect!

Understand that this is about balance: give and take, good and bad, progression and occasional regression. Success, fitness, health, living a better, fuller life has never been an ‘all or nothing’ proposition. Those who are fit for life have this figured out, and now, so do you. There are going to be days where you planned to exercise, but an emergency arose. Heck, you’re probably going to get the flu this year and you won’t be able to exercise for days! When you followed the loser’s mentality you might have gone months with no exercise. Eventually, you would embark on another diet or exercise kick and begin again! Now, that you realize you have a new way of life, you will jump back in the saddle as soon as you can. You will get back on track as soon as you’re physically able; because you know your life is better for it. You’re a winner. Say it. Know it. Believe it. You’re a winner and you now live following the habits and attitude of every person who has won this battle before you.

Tomorrow, you may decide to eat something that you know doesn’t help you move closer to your weight loss goal. You might decide you really want a piece of cake. The dieter’s mentality says, that if you have one or two or three cookies, you’ve blown it. So, you might as well eat the whole box. And that rolls into, well, I’ve blown it today and I might as well punish myself the rest of the week by eating bad food. I’ll start my diet next week. This is called a slide. It’s the loser’s mentality.

This is a way of life. You’re human. You’re gonna miss the occasional workout. You’re going to enjoy the occasional treat. You can do those things in moderation. You’re going to recognize that when you’ve fallen off track, you immediately get back on. Now think about it. There are times when you mess up in life. You yell at your kids and you didn’t mean to. You don’t spend the rest of your week screaming, yelling and stomping around. Of course not! You check yourself, put yourself back in line, and start behaving the way you know you should. The same is true of your food. The same is true of your healthy lifestyle. Slip up? Get back on track. Don’t let a slip turn into a slide.

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10 comments:

kuntrygirl said...

thaso much Chalene..I have been making excuses all summer...been busy,dont feel like it,had a few cookies,I will eat crap for supper,etc...it has to stop..I love CHaLean Extreme and Turbo Jam..You are awesome and are such an inspiration..thanks so much fo all you do..Im going to lose more and get where I want to be in life..I want my kids to pick up my good habits(reading my bible daily,eating healthy,love exercise,etc)...thanks so much once again! I really needed this!!

Linds Forrest said...

Thank you so much for posting this!!! It was and is EXACTLY what I wanted and needed to hear today. THANK YOU!

Angelica Bays, TygrLilies.blogspot.com said...

Seriously- get out of my head.

JJ said...

Thanks Chalene, this was just what I needed to hear today!!

Marissa said...

Sometimes Truth is so simple. I liked this perspective. Thanks!

Clint and Kristen Family said...

Could you be more amazing? You are so good at vocalizing what everyone is thinking and feeling. You rock.

The Carroll's said...

Just lost it. I am no longer a loser.. (so I think)

-Brooke Carroll

Anonymous said...

This post is exactly right. I have spent many months giving up because I screwed up one meal. I think it is a loser way of looking at things. I will never lose weight that way. I really needed to read this, it is so motivating! Thank you!!

Anonymous said...

I think I need to read this everyday until i lose the "loser" mentality. I am exactly who you are talking about in this blog. I made it through 6 weeks of Chalean Extreme then my friend passed away. It has been two months since that happened and well, here I sit (STILL)..(making excuses for my pizza and chinese food dinners). I must say that I agree with Angelica. You are contagious and your words stick with people. While doing Chalean Extreme, I felt empowered; unbelievably empowered. When I didn't want to do something or felt lazy all i could hear in the back of my mind was "YOU CAN DO THIS". So, thank you for posting this blog. I needed a reality check.

Unknown said...

That use to be my mentality, but now I'm learning that the diet mentality doesn't work. I'm now working towards a healthier lifestyle. I have found that this works over the long term. Even though the weight has been coming off slowly, it's been staying off and to me that is more important. I would rather lose 20 lbs in a year that I never put back on then lose 30 lbs in 3 months only to gain them all back and an additional 10. That's how I became obese and I recently came out of that range and am just overweight now. That is a great feeling and learning to celebrate my body the way it is now and every subtle change I see has been the most rewarding attitude I've learned!