I don’t remember who uttered this witty weight loss quote but I will never forget it. It goes something like this, “Whether breakfast, lunch or dinner those who think first will be thinner.” We need to remember that food is matter and we have the power of Mind over Menu. Many people have been on so many diets that the issue is not necessarily a matter of knowledge but a matter of wisdom which is basically defined as the actions a person takes based upon the knowledge they have. So the knowledge that we have put into simple to implement actions no matter who you are or how much weight you want to lose can help you create a menu that is just for you. I like to call that type of menu a “menYOU”
If you’ve learned anything from your dieting mistakes in life you can use your experience-gained dietary intelligence to outsmart the menu that is working to sabotage you. That’s right…I said sabotage you. The menus we order from at restaurants from fast food to fine dining are generally not geared to support the weight conscious. And speaking of conscious this is the part of your mind we are going to work to train so that you begin to operate in unconscious consciousness or in other words that natural actions we take without thinking by first developing and practicing the actions of everyday life with heightened awareness and specific purpose.
All this fancy talk simply means that by thinking more about the items decide to eat everyday you can develop automatic behaviors that work in favor of your weight loss and I call this “Mind over Menu”. This little phrase can help you achieve big results on the scale and just about everybody can accomplish this with a whole lot of ease and little effort. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to make better choices it just takes a person that is willing to allow their mind to dominate over the power of the menu.
The best place to start is by initiating a food diary that you keep daily. OK, I know it is a pain to write down everything you eat everyday but doesn’t the pain of having extra pounds on your body outweigh the effort it will take to write your foods down? The first thing that keeping a food diary does is it helps you become aware of everything you are putting in your mouth. This is step one in gaining the power of Mind over Menu. You can use food diaries in a blueprint towards the building of a new you, as well as, help you identify areas you need to improve in, in food selection.
Food diaries also hold you accountable and force you to think about what you are eating. I want you to begin to think of your food diary as a term paper that will determine your final grade in a very important class and over time you will begin to edit out the mistakes and bad grammar which in this case are equivalent to poor food choices. In the age where the internet is a great dieting assistant you can conveniently keep a food diary online at www.myfitnesspal.com or www.self.com which are just a couple of places where you can register for free to keep an online food diary that allows you to select commonly consumed foods from a database and these food diaries even calculate the amount of calories you are consuming.
It is helpful to plan out what you will eat ahead of time. Make your own menu that includes foods you like and love. Once you prepare a menu for yourself look it over and find places where you can cut back without feeling too deprived and save calories. Remember that this is a process that works to implement a lifestyle change that is realistic enough for you do continue forever.
Secondly, in this whole Mind over Menu phenomenon; just make better choices. If you must have the bacon cheeseburger, don’t eat french-fries with it sending your weight loss into a starch and grease comma otherwise known as a weight gain. Veggie fries are gaining great popularity. I like to call this method sacrifice for satisfaction. Begin to think in ways that tell your brain that you get enough satisfaction out of the burger so you can do without the fries and in place of the fries have a salad with low calorie or fat free dressing of slice vegetables up into long slivers that resemble fries and pretend a little.
If you have a heavier meal, make it a menu meal selection that you consume earlier in the day and not a few hours before bedtime when it is sure to stick to you. Also adjust the other foods you have that day to be lower calorie more healthier selections. Before you know it you will automatically be adjusting your menu to both enjoy the foods you love while still consuming a daily amount of calories that can result in weight loss. Do you love ice cream? I have found that most yogurt places have a fat-free sugar-free frozen yogurt with all the taste minus the guilt. It is going to take time to adjust your menu to where it needs to be but the important thing is to start today. Losing one pound a week isn’t a lot but it is realistic, easy to achieve by implementing Mind over Menu and it also equates to 52 pounds per year. Your mind has power so use it to empower your weight loss.
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