“Today I do not have time to exercise”. “This food is so delicious I need a third helping”. “I’ve been exercising today so I can have more food”.

There are many excuses we come up with to avoid exercising and to eat more. But- talking yourself out of a healthy lifestyle will not lead to permanent weight loss.  So, instead of talking yourself out, how about talking yourself in?

There are two major ways to do this. The first one is:

Give yourself reasons. Come up with reasons why you want to lose weight permanently. Come up with reasons why you want to lose weight in a healthy way. The best time of the day is in the morning, before getting up. Try to find your “Top 10 reasons to lose weight permanently” every day. If these change from day to day, even better. It gives your unconscious a little poke, a gentle push in the right direction.

The second way to “talk yourself in” is using affirmations. You probably know already how these work: State them in the positive, use present tense and target what you desire. Some examples are

• “I am healthy, move my body regularly, and pay attention to my eating habits”
• “I am active and monitor what I’m eating”
• “Today I am happier, healthier and thinner”

You need to find your own words- don’t use affirmations of others. After all, you want to influence your mind, so you need to talk to it in your words not the words chosen by somebody else.

Some people say “affirmations don’t work for me”. Well, there is an important condition to make them work: You have to believe in them.

Stick with the same affirmation for at least 3 weeks, and repeat it at least 20 times daily. Try reading your affirmation out loud, give your voice a tone of credibility and conviction, and listen to what your are saying to yourself. I know people who write their affirmations on a sheet of paper and put them on their bathroom mirror. So they see them every morning and get a constant reminder of their affirmations to lose weight permanently.