3 Mindsets That’ll Help You Drop Up to 50 Pounds

First humanity built the wheel. Then we tried to build a better diet plan immediately after wheeling around everywhere packed on some uncomfortable pounds. Whether you subscribe to a special diet plan, think exercise is the key to a perfect figure, or tap into specialized diet pills, the fact of the matter remains: losing weight is hard and there seems to be no perfect science.

But could a change of mindset be what helps you shed the weight? That’s not a joke, really. If you’ve heard about Melissa McCarthy’s famed weight loss, where she’s dropped 50 pounds to date, you’ll be excited to hear she credits one of the following mindsets as her ticket to slimness.

Which one will work for you?

  1. It’s Not a Diet, It’s a Lifestyle

When you begin a diet, the day you have your waistline back and can return to drinking all the sugary beverages you want is always at the forefront of your mind. This, naturally, makes whatever you’re consuming on a diet taste like garbage in comparison – making it more tempting to ditch. It also makes you feel depressed and uncomfortable with the current state of life, which is obviously less fun than what it was or what it’ll one day be. That increases your stress levels, which make you gain weight.

Instead of seeing it as a diet, see it as a change to your lifestyle. For however long you decide to stick with this lifestyle, you’re going to be eating better for your long-term health, not your beach body.

  1. Don’t Think About Your Weight; You’re Fine the Way You Are

Sounds rather contradictory, right? In the words of Melissa McCarthy, she claims she stopped worrying about it. She remarks that 50 pounds is a lot to lose, and after off-and-on efforts throughout the years, that is the conclusion that actually brought her success.

When you think of yourself as fat or unattractive, and devote all your attention recapturing the figure you used to have, you’re raising your stress levels. When your body is under stress, it naturally holds calories as a way to fuel you during these hard times. Little does it know, it is the hard times! By learning to be content with the way you look now, weight loss will come more easily – and the results will be more exciting.

  1. You’re Doing This for You

Wanting to look really beautiful for a special someone or to look rocking for the beach, are all good reasons for losing weight. And simultaneously the worst motivations you could have. These incentives create a sense of being watched, judged, and a feeling of inadequacy, resulting in one main pitfall in your weight loss endeavor:

They’re outside perspectives, and can’t be properly gauged. You can’t possibly know what everyone at the beach will think, so when have you lost enough? When have you lost too much? This uncertain put you in a push-and-pull relationship with your eating habits, splurging and fasting on whims – throwing your metabolism and therefore weight loss to the wind.

Instead, if you’re doing it for yourself, there’s no one else to account to. When are you happy with your progress? When are you content with how you look? It gives you the control and confidence to embrace any and all results, and stick with it longer.