The difference that a statement can make in the life of a man, woman, or child is nothing short of phenomenal.

Change your mind - change your life!

Weight Loss Goals.

Weight Loss Goals might be the trickiest and most important part of your new exercise / lifestyle program. The reason for this is that if your goals aren't set properly the odds are that you will blow your new program. What is your weight loss goal? What should your goal be? These questions are important and they are going to vary depending on your needs and attitudes.

If you are losing weight because your doctor suggested that you should you may only need to lose 5 - 10% of what you weigh right now. However, if your weight loss goal is more ambitious than that - say 30 - 40% of your total weight your approach is going to be quite different.

The key to success with weight loss is to make your weight loss goals compliant with the gold standards of goal setting in general. What does this mean? Well, to understand how goals work you might want to review some goal setting theory. If you are familiar with goal setting you will recall that goals should be SMART. In keeping with the SMART model, your weight loss goals should be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and tangible.

Let's do it!

You've decided that you're absolutely determined to burn of some excess poundage. The first step is to be specific in choosing your weight loss goals. But before we get to the specifics let's consider - what is reasonable?

Your weight loss goals can be based on any number of factors but in order to be realistic you need to face the facts of what is healthy and reasonable weight loss. The medical community at large recognizes that a healthy rate of weight loss is in the region of 1 - 2 pounds per week. That doesn't sound like much does it? When you do the math, it might take a significant amount of time to get to where you want to be.

Be wise - the 'miracle' diets, pills, and programs that promise "twenty pounds in twenty days" they don't work - no, really. They DON'T WORK. Any weight you drop while on such a program will be put back on plus a few once you stop the diet or stop taking the pills. You need a REALISTIC solution - one that works and one that lasts.

When the student is ready....

- Buddhist Proverb

Set yourself up for success. Accept the fact that the road ahead might be long - that's ok. The results will be worth it. Ok, now that you agree that your goal should be realistic, let's make it specific. This will put you in the ball park for a specific weight loss goal. If you want to base your weight loss goals on BMI this online BMI calculator will get you going. Please remember that the calculators are 'best guess' and should be taken as useful guidelines rather than the 11th commandment.

Ok, we've covered Specific and Realistic. Let's work the rest of it out. It is a truism that what we measure we improve. So the next part of your plan needs to be a journal, chart, spreadsheet or some other kind of permanent record of your progress. This is the M in SMART - measurable. You need two initial numbers in your record - where you are now, and what your goal is.

Let's create a model to work with. Our model is a female who is 5' 6" tall and 154lbs. According to the calculators above this model should be in the region of 130 - 144lbs.The BMI for this person is 24.5 which is at the high end of healthy and on the verge of being 'overweight'. Her weight loss goals should be to lose 10lbs in 12 weeks. That is both specific and measurable. It is also attainable. We will make sure it is attainable by planning to increase her intake of healthy foods, drop her intake of junk calories, and kick start our built in fat burning program by getting some moderate exercise that will burn approximately 300 - 500 calories per day.

If you take a close look at the simple plan above you'll see it fits all the criteria for a SMART goal. Breaking down the process even further will only increase your chances of success. For example decide in advance what you are going to eat and better yet, prepare it in advance. Eat nothing else and you'll be on track. You can also decide on an appropriate form of exercise that you can incorporate into your lifestyle - walking, some cardio / resistance training in the gym, cycling, swimming, whatever gets you motivated, whatever you enjoy.

The Secret Sauce

You've probably heard that huge percentages of people set weight loss goals, achieve them but in a few weeks, or months, or even a couple of years they are right back where they started from. This might even be your experience. There is a very good reason for why this happens and a very good way to make sure that it doesn't not happen to you.

The secret is in your mind. That's right, it has nothing to do with your metabolism, your genetics, your lifestyle, your family, your job or any other of the myriad of excuses that are commonly offered up. The problem is in the deepest recesses of your mind. The sad fact is that your body wants to be fat. That's kind of a shocking statement to make isn't it? Yes, but it's true.

Regardless of what you think about yourself or what you think of your body for some reason it wants to be fat. Your body loves you, it wants to protect you, it wants to do the best it possibly can for you. However our bodies are not particularly in tune with what we desire. Our bodies see the world and a very basic level - 'Do I need to prepare for famine?' or 'Do I need to be ready to either run from danger or fight it?'

Our bodies take their cues from how we respond to the world around us. When we respond to stress physically (get up and pace, develop an nervous habit) our bodies assume that we need to be in fight or flight mode and start the fat burning program. When we respond to stress passively (internalizing, seeking comfort food, isolating ourselves by watching TV etc.) our bodies assume that we need to prepare for famine and turn on the fat storage program.

This is exactly why people lose weight and then either right away or over time put it back on. It's because of what we're thinking - what we're subconsciously telling our bodies to do. Unless you change the way you think - you will be forever at the mercy of built in fat storage programs.

Change your mind

Your weight loss goals must incorporate a plan to alter the way you think about fitness, food, and stress. When your thinking changes your body will follow suit. When your inner mental programming makes you reach for super healthy, nutrition packed food, the progress will seem like it's automatic. When your thinking changes and you choose to get active finding pleasure in moving your body the fat will appear to melt away from your body all of it's own accord. It will seem like it is automatic. And the real bonus - it will be permanent.

Can you imagine a life of stress free fitness? No fretting, no fussing just a life style that works! Your friends will be envious if not down right jealous. You won't have to crash diet to get into your clothes for the summer. You won't have to worry about looking good for the class reunion. You will always look and feel great!

Create a New Mind

What does it take to change your mind? What does it take to make your mind a weight loss goals seeking machine? Surgery? No. Expensive hours on the therapists couch? No. All it takes is a little patience and a little know how.

The subconscious is a very very complex thing. Programming it might seem like an impossibility but it is well within your grasp to do so. Your subconscious mind is programmed by repetitive thoughts and statements being exposed to it on a daily basis. That is exactly how your mind got to be in the state that it is in today. The beliefs you have about food, diets, exercise, and stress were programmed into your mind by repetitive thoughts and affirmations.

You may have heard these affirmations you may have read them. You may have seen them on TV, you may have learned them from your parents, from your friends, siblings ... whatever it doesn't really matter where you got them the fact is that you accepted them and now they are a part of you! Now it's up to you to re-write those thoughts and create new lean producing behaviours automatically!

The way to do this is through affirmations. Yep, to program your subconscious you have to use the same process that caused it to work against your desires. You need to expose your mind to positive, healthy, fat burning, exercise loving affirmations over and over and over until your subconscious mind accepts them. Once your subconscious mind accepts them your behaviour will automatically change. It has to - it's the way your brain works.

Now the next question is 'how long does it take?' Well that depends on how resistant your mind is and how long you have been thinking incorrect thoughts. The good news is that regardless of how resistant your subconscious mind is to affirmations you can by-pass the resistance mechanism. That's right - by-pass it. Short-cut, short-circuit, end-around whatever you want to call it you don't have to deal with the resistance of your mind head-on.

Science has discovered a new technology that will put your mind into a very receptive state in just a few minutes. It's called