I guess you can say that mental toughness is the key to achieving everyday goals whether it’s in fitness, weight loss, business or love – this is about mental toughness for weight loss. Without understanding about how the mind work, we can easily fall during the climb to achieving our goal. As mentioned in some of my articles that everything we do in life are all connected especially our body, mind and our surroundings.
For example if you want to loose a couple of kilos to fit into your new dress or weight gain during X-Mas, you have to start by making a simple decision! Yes, a very simple decision. Everything should be simple, don’t make it complicated.
Make The Decision
The simple decision is saying “yes” I will do whatever it takes to complete my goal. “Yes”, I will do research and gather information on how I can achieve my goal. “Yes”, I will set deadlines for my goal.
The decision starts with the mind – your mental toughness. Once you made up your mind about taking on this challenge. You will have no choice but to continue training your mind for any obstacles coming your way.
My Mental Toughness Training
I don’t know if you guys heard a topic discussion about weight loss with 3aw Neil Mitchell sometime back in late 2014. During the conversation you have callers mentioning ways they have taken to loose weight.
One of the topics was about skipping meals, some callers saying they don’t do breakfast or dinner and only have lunch. At the time, I thought to myself “might just give it go” by limiting my calories intake.
After my resignation as a web developer to Jim Penman and Li Penman at the Jim’s Group National HQ after three years. It was a quick decision leaving me jobless, but in my heart I always believed that everything is going to be alright. As mentioned in my bio, I believe in a higher power and everything I do is a part of my journey – yes, it’s my journey while I am alive.
I have trained my way of thinking about 3 years ago. That everything is not in your control, and there’s no need to fuss about it. And something you can control like removing people in your life that are unnecessary, not challenging, no goals and does not fit into your lifestyle choice.
Being unemployed for a couple of weeks, I have the opportunity to work on my resume and applied for jobs on Seek. I had one interview through a referral from a new friend I met through Flowriding in MSAC. Sadly, I was not successful but that didn’t phased me one bit.
Soon after, I was contacted by Jim’s Cleaning Group COO, Ali Olmez to discussed about a job proposal. I have join Jim’s Cleaning on a contract based as a web analyst.
Mental Toughness for Weigh Loss
Since listening to 3aw, I have made my decision on achieving my weight loss goal by losing my belly. I made my decision in the worst time ever which is in December 2014, X-Mas BBQ, it’s just way too much eating we do during our holidays…cry.
I have keep my mind strong as part of my weight loss goal by keeping my meal portion standard. This means that going to BBQs, I will only eat just enough to satisfied my hunger and nothing more to ruin my goal. This was a tough phase for my weight loss goal; during the hot Summer, ice cream, ice coffee and running in the crazy heat.
I kept on pushing forward towards my weight loss goal, losing my belly!
During X-Mas period 2014…
Eating
One of the hardest things for me was reducing my meal intake, as mentioned before when I heard people skipping meals on 3aw station.
I started off skipping breakfast only – this is hard because it’s important meal but I just want to give something new a go that I have not done and most importantly learn about discipline. I have only went for one week to help me understand how important discipline and mental toughness is.
What I learned from my fasting is that I really suffer lol. Only drink tea and coffee when arrived at work, and follow by my morning tea meal.
What I have learned is “disciplined” and mental toughness. This means that whenever I think about wanting to eat sugar, dessert, a double whopper and just plain Mi Goreng noodles which I love.
I think back to my morning of fasting and said to myself “Bro!, you just went through all that in the morning so you can just pig out on junk food?” That’s when I stop in my tracks to consuming junk food because my goal was to loose my belly and if I consume these unhealthy food my goals will take longer to achieve.
After my one week of developing my mental toughness with my calories intake, I came out stronger then ever before. My second week of weight loss and moving forward became so simple. I was back to my normal three meals a day routine, not just two.
Cheat Day!
Everyone that has ever made a decision on getting into a better shape, weight loss and body building. We all know the term “cheat day”, where you can eat and pig out one day a week, right?
I have invented the oposite 🙂 it’s called “mental toughness day” lol. Why ruin all your hard work during the week so you can make your goal post further? If you are doing this once a week, that’s one week for seven weeks of cheat day where you pig out…
What I do is the oposite, it’s mental toughness day. Where I try my best to take in as less calories as possible but don’t over do it by starvation. It just means that you still fulfill all your hunger requirements but lesser calories! If that make sense to you haha. Do the mental toughness day for performance on achieving your weight loss.
No Alcohol
No Alcohol – for me it’s very simple to achieve but might extremely be difficult for others. Why? I don’t see a point in drinking, I stop this two years back. It cost money, gives you headaches, poison and damage your internal organs. I pretty much eliminate alcohol from my body for the purpose of keeping my body healthy. I do have an occasional drink, who does not.
Exercise and Running
After doing some reading on-line as you do, to find more information on achieving my goal. I find that running in the morning is the best time to loose weight before breakfast. Why? Because your body will need to use your fat reserves e.g. your belly fat, to fuel your running, your energy, your legs.
It was tough, getting up early in the morning to do my 15 minutes routine which I have developed during my afternoon runs. My goal was to do at least three morning runs a week plus my three times a week afternoon runs.
As you first start off there will be failures and it’s part of training your mental toughness, it’s good to understand failures. Failures will make you aware of your challenges and you will learn and grow from that failure.
Some mornings I just couldn’t get up lol, but after some fail attempts. I have made a decision that even if I don’t feel like running, I should just get up, get used to the new routine by doing light jogging and walks. As you jog and walk, your body just wants to run and slowly build up my momentum.
Maintenance – Mental Toughness
Since reaching my weight loss goal which took me 6 weeks to complete, I have lost a total of 11 kg. The reward is knowing that your mental toughness had paid off, now I can eat as much as I like and don’t gain weight as long as I still keep active and keep moving.
My new goal is to get some definition on my abs, this is my current abs situation. Photo taken today 5/4/2015.
That’s All Folks – Start Training!
Well, that’s me on my mental toughness. It can only come from training your mind – developed your mental toughness, understand it to achieve your goals.
Thank you for reading my blog and I hope I might be able to intrigue you just a little bit 🙂
