When people ask me about my favorite weight loss advice I always answer: Be Happy. When you feel happy, it is much easier to improve something so important as your relationship with food, exercise, and sleep while getting in control of your weight. You will then feel much more empowered and ready to manage appropriately the rest of the things that matter in your life.  But how can we get there? What can help us to get there? Let’s explore the topic a bit more and let me try to help get as close as you can to happiness, so you can better manage and be in control of your weight.

We all have commitments, problems, families to care for, and misfortunes. Some of us may be more fortunate than others. Some of us can’t simply organize or get any better at improving our lives. We get in a tunnel where everything seems dark and deep, and there seems to be no escape. The more miserable we feel, the deeper we dig into the tunnel. 

There are many things that can help you move from that tunnel, one step at a time. Feeling that you are in your right weight is one of those steps but there are many others that you might want to explore if you haven´t done so. For example, think about spending time outdoors, especially in contact with nature. Enjoy the sight of water running down a fall, the sound of a rushing river, or the peace of a creek. Breathe the smell of flowers or trees. Observe an animal, maybe simply a squirrel or a butterfly. Really spend time in nature and your mood will improve. Your senses will become more receptive to other changes you might need to make in your life. Being outdoors will increase your vitality, which is essential when thinking about modifying your current lifestyle. According to the lead author of a series of studies at the University of Rochester published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology, “Research has shown that people with a greater sense of vitality don’t just have more energy for things they want to do, they also have more resilience to physical illnesses. One of the pathways to health may be to spend more time in natural settings.”

You can also explore options like meditation, yoga, listening to music, or learn a new skill like drawing or cooking. Save some time a week to play a board game with your kids, go to a concert, or find time to have a coffee with a friend. Just look for those activities that may help you feel good and optimistic. 

An optimistic way of thinking, living, and feeling can help you tremendously when coping with your more-or-less complicated life and misfortunes. And being optimistic is not just about seeing rainbows—it can also help you build your new project in life! Obviously, it can help you tremendously when trying to change things in your life like learning how to manage your weight.  It will not return your health, your marriage, or your loved ones. It is not even going to bring you money, total peace, or satisfaction. But it is going to help you think and act in the right direction to be able to cope and manage your weight in the best possible way. 

So if you are trying to lose weight, practice my weight loss advice; be happy and don’t feel miserable for getting rid of the food you loved in your past life. It’ll be easy to change the bad habits and learn new ones and to re-educate your way of nourishing your body and the way to enjoy your food. 

Get rid of the negative thinking and move to a positive one where you shouldn’t feel like you are missing anything. The only thing you will be losing is weight, which you shouldn’t be missing at all!

Adopt an Addiction to Positivity

If your body is well fed and your hormones are in balance, if you are sleeping well and exercising, chances are you will feel energetic, optimistic, and happy. That, coupled with looking better, should give you a much more positive outlook and a rewarding life.

In the same way that sugar, salt, and bad foods are addictive, so are exercising, eating well, and being happy. So, let’s develop these “positive addictions.”

Remember, willpower is limited. The more you have planned and organized ahead of time, the less energy you will need to make decisions about what and when to eat. Have next week’s meal plans ready by the end of this weekend, and have all the ingredients you need ready to make the menu plan happen. Always have the right ingredients available for snacks and emergencies.

The Candy Bar: How to Be Happy Practically

Do you feel miserable because you are dreaming about having a candy bar? Or maybe you feel guilty and miserable because you already had one in the middle of your day or right before going to bed. Whatever the situation, your basic dilemma is that a candy bar is making you feel miserable, whether because you wish you could eat one or because you feel guilty because you just ate it.

Stop feeling miserable. Have your candy bar, but please, enjoy it! Feel and enjoy every bit of it. Be happy! Let your endorphins run through your body, and give thanks to whomever you believe in and relax. Don’t feel guilty—be proactive. Rather than beating yourself up for a failure, plan the right meal for tonight or tomorrow.

If you try to apply the candy bar example to most of the things happening in your life, you will feel better. You can’t always be fighting against natural desires and getting mad every time things don’t go the way you expected. You have to create a natural flow. Let things happen more naturally. Most of the time there is a reason for what is making you unhappy, uncomfortable, or unbalanced, and if you analyze it, you can find that reason. Even if you don’t find the reason, avoid the fight and the resulting tiredness and impotence of not getting things the way you expected. Be more flexible and relaxed with your menus during the weekend to start fresh the new week as a way to ease back into your healthy lifestyle.

The Importance of Positive Visualization

This might sound silly, but instead of being mad because you are not eating burgers for lunch anymore, visualize the fat leaving your belly, see the new you, and substitute a nice chicken salad for that burger. If you missed the bus, don’t get mad: walk for a few blocks to get your exercise. You lost $50 on the street? Tell yourself that maybe someone who really needed the money found it. Your kid is sick today? Maybe you needed more quality time together. Just try to find a way to turn whatever is happening that is difficult to cope with or making you feel bad or negative into something more positive. Try to transform that experience into one that makes you feel better and helps you move on to something else that is more positive.