Think Thin -- for Life

5 Ways to Put Your Mind to Work and Reach Your Weight Loss Goals

Know thyself.

That ancient bit of wisdom stands the test of time, and it's particularly relevant for people who want to lose weight and keep it off -- without crash diets, special foods, or punishing self-denial.

Being successful at weight management is a question of mind over matter: You start by changing the way you think and act. It's a lot easier than it sounds, and there are five basic strategies to accomplish the goal.

• My problem is I'm addicted to snacks.
  What can I do?
• Use your mind to help you lose weight!
• I have to eat fast food at times.
  How can I make better choices?

Self-monitoring -- Knowledge Is Power

First and most important is self-monitoring, which means increasing self-awareness. In other words, if you're really going to change the way you eat and keep fit, you have to know what you're eating and how active you are. The first step is to keep a food diary -- not forever, just a few days or weeks. Write down what you eat, then look up the calories, write down the number of minutes you're active every day, then gradually make changes that are necessary.

For example, if you discover that you're eating more than you would like, think about why, and start evaluating your mood state when you're eating. When I work with patients in the clinic, I have found that people generally have no problem with overeating in the morning, and most often not in the afternoon. For most people who struggle with their weight, night eating is the culprit, so certainly pay attention to your mood states when you're eating during the day, but pay most attention to the evening. We find that the No. 1 cause of people getting into trouble is emotional eating: People eat in response to stress, tension, anxiety, depression, loneliness, anger, boredom -- all negative mood states.

You can get a handle on this when you're eating by asking yourself "How am I feeling?" and write it down.

Stimulus Control -- Breaking Down the Barriers to Healthy Eating

Once you've identified the barriers to weight management -- stress, lack of regular exercise, time constraints, etc. -- you can figure out a plan to break down or get around those barriers. For example, perhaps you could exercise at lunchtime by taking a brisk walk. In our society, everybody is too gosh darn busy to exercise, so to change the mindset we talk about starting with five or 10 minutes of purposeful activity: Stand up, shut your TV off, put your computer on standby, and just go walk for 5 or 10 minutes, and gradually build from there. You just want to make small changes over time, gradually building up to 30 to 60 minutes a day.

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