If you’re experiencing difficulty losing weight, using positive affirmations statements to retrain your mindset could be immensely helpful. Simply repeating certain phrases aloud will do.
Try repeating one of these affirmations each day before eating, during exercise or before going to sleep – whether out loud, silently or even visualized!
1. They Help You Focus
Positive affirmations is an effective tool for weight loss success. By shifting away from self-limiting beliefs such as “I can’t shed this extra weight” and “I amn’t good enough”, positive affirmations can shift attention from these debilitating mindsets toward more empowering ones like: “I can make healthy choices” or “I will achieve my goals”.
Repetition of positive statements daily helps replace limiting thoughts with more supportive ones and stay on the path towards your health and wellness goals even when times get difficult. Affirmations can keep you motivated and on track towards meeting them even during difficult periods.
As important as affirmations can be for changing our mindset and reaching goals, they don’t work alone – for maximum effect they should be used alongside mindfulness techniques or cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT or DBT).
Once your thoughts begin to align with what you want vibrationally, this allows you to attract it more easily into reality. Affirmations are frequently used alongside goal setting and vision boards for this reason.
As you use positive affirmations to support a healthier lifestyle, their power grows stronger with each use. Keep in mind that it takes time for new behaviors or thought patterns to form, so be patient and kind towards yourself as this process unfolds!
For maximum effect, try speaking your affirmations aloud with emotion on a daily basis – either morning or bedtime is ideal – during quiet times when you can really focus on breathing and focus your affirmation into your awareness. Writing them down and placing them somewhere that you will see them such as on a vision board, sticky note on mirror, phone screensaver or planner can all work.
If you feel stuck or require extra motivation, seek guidance and support from a therapist who can offer guidance and encouragement along your journey. A therapist may also help identify underlying beliefs which might be impeding weight loss or impeding success and assist with challenging them.
2. They Help You Stay Motivated
Positive affirmations is an excellent way to stay motivated during your weight loss journey. They can alter your thoughts, increase self-belief and foster an environment conducive to healthy behaviors.
This affirmation encourages you to focus on all the positive aspects of life that will improve once you achieve your ideal weight, such as increased energy, the opportunity to try new activities, and an overall sense of well-being. A vision board or quote board with your goals on it may also serve as an excellent way of keeping yourself motivated when times get tough.
This affirmation can be combined with other weight loss strategies to increase self-efficacy and foster behavior change. Setting realistic goals, breaking them into smaller tasks, and celebrating even small victories all help foster behavior change and create an atmosphere conducive to self-efficacy – thus encouraging behavior change!
Remind yourself that weight loss takes time and dedication; especially if you are trying to shed significant amounts quickly. Setting unrealistic goals may make the journey even harder, potentially leading to abandonment of diet and health journey altogether.
Acknowledging that you will listen to and eat when your body signals hunger or fullness can help create a healthier relationship with food, and allow you to be aware of cues such as feeling tired or experiencing pain from your body.
Make this affirmation come alive by practicing mindful eating. This practice involves gradually eating your meal while paying close attention to each bite’s taste, smell, feel, and appearance in your mouth. Savouring each experience of eating will also help limit overindulgence.
Many people struggle with negative body images and believe they cannot achieve a healthy weight at their current size. Making this affirmation part of your daily routine can help combat negative self-talk while cultivating greater love for yourself – ultimately leading to your finding the healthy weight that works for you!
3. They Help You Feel Better
Positive affirmations may not work miracles, but they can certainly help shift your mindset and increase self-love and confidence. The key is integrating them into daily routine and challenging negative thoughts that sabotage weight loss efforts.
To maximize their efficacy, when creating affirmations statements try using them in present tense such as “I am confident and healthy.” This allows you to better visualize achieving your goals now rather than waiting. Belief in what you affirm adds further impact; and creating an affirmation ritual such as saying them at the same time each morning and night helps reinforce them and ensure consistency.
If you find yourself grappling with body image issues, affirmations focusing on positive body traits like kindness and honesty may help refocus your thoughts away from scale numbers or size of pants to what matters most to you – like caring for others and your own physical health.
Focusing your thoughts on positive aspects can also include acknowledging what you love about yourself, including how your body nourishes and assists with physical activity. Doing this can promote a healthier relationship between body and self and displace shameful messages about diet culture that could otherwise create feelings of being too small or large.
Reaffirm the qualities you love about yourself, such as your ability to make good choices. This can help strengthen your sense of internal control, which in turn can help overcome cravings and stick with a healthier eating plan.
Affirmations work best when they reflect your beliefs and values, which is why it’s crucial to find some that resonate with you. Kelman suggests creating your own affirmations using either a journal or app such as ThinkUp or Shine which provides verbal and visual options to express what’s true for you.
Read and repeat a few affirmations already available as a way of finding inspiration. Affirmation apps such as these may also help track progress towards your goals and hold yourself accountable.
4. They Help You Be More Self-Aware
Affirmations help you become more self-aware during your weight loss journey, leading to improved health and success. Positive affirmations helps identify and dispel negative thoughts that might be hindering you.
Recent research indicates that affirmations can also assist individuals on their weight loss journey by increasing confidence and capability. Participants ranked a list of core values before participating in an fMRI appointment where either an affirmation message was presented (vs. control message), with the affirmation message increasing self-esteem and self-efficacy, prompting individuals to be more active over the following month.
To maximize their effectiveness, affirmations should be short and direct. Repeating them out loud initially and speaking them in an authentic tone are also key elements of successful affirmations practices. When adding affirmations into your daily routine, try saying them first thing in the morning or before going to sleep; repeat them out loud during workouts; or write them on sticky notes that can be placed strategically throughout the day, such as the bathroom mirror or fridge.
Yeager suggests that affirmations is most effective when focused on specific traits or characteristics, like kindness or dedication, which you know for certain are true even though they might not always feel true to yourself.
Affirmations that focus solely on how good you look are likely to fail. Instead, affirmations which emphasize what you love most about yourself (for instance your kindness and dedication) tends to be more powerful in that they foster a healthier relationship between body and self – rather than viewing your body as something to correct, you can view its positive attributes such as helping you enjoy fitness or feel great after eating healthily.
