1. Weight Loss: Tipping the Scales in Your Favor

154. Lose Weight by Cleaning Up Your Psychological Pollution

Smile when you push away those french fries, because maintaining a positive attitude is important for anyone watching their weight. And it requires some extra effort because–let’s face it–trying to lose weight is probably not your idea of fun.

Basically there are two kinds of attitudes you can adopt: negative or positive.

1. •People with a negative attitude undermine their own efforts. They see weight loss as a form of self-denial only, an ordeal to be suffered through. People with a negative attitude perceive that something of great value has been denied. They pollute their minds with this negative thinking in much the same way that we pollute our air and water. As a result, they soon begin to feel sorry for themselves and end up eating to relieve those feelings of loss and denial.
   

2. •People with a positive attitude approach weight control as an opportunity for improvement, self-enhancement, and self-control. A positive attitude enables a dieter to focus on what can be gained in terms of satisfaction, self-esteem, and better health rather than what is lost.
   

To clean up your “psychological pollution,” stick to your goals, memorize or write down this credo, called the Dieter’s Dictum, and repeat it to yourself often.

I do not think of weight control as “giving up my problem foods.” To give something up denotes that it has some value. Overeating has no value to me. I view eating management as “getting rid of my problem foods” much like I get rid of the week’s garbage.