Are you struggling to lose weight? Are your diet and exercise programs not working for you? Are you finding it difficult to stay motivated? While its essential to have a plan for proper nutrition and regular exercise, theres a one more thing you need to lose weight fast and maintain your ideal body weight. You also need to win the Mental Game of weight control.

Most people ignore the importance of the Mental Game in achieving your ideal weight. Deeply engrained thoughts and beliefs are the source of bad eating and exercise habits and can result in a negative, overweight self-image. No diet or exercise program can succeed if your mind is working against you. To lose weight fast or maintain your ideal body weight, you need to combine proper nutrition and regular exercise with winning the Mental Game of weight control.

Love Comes First

Many people think, and often say aloud, Id love my body if I could just lose 10-20 pounds. The truth is that this thinking is completely backwards. If you dont love your body to begin with, it is next to impossible to improve your health or your weight. Think about it this way, why would you take care of something you dont already love?

Lets explore an analogy to help illustrate this point. Think about how you treat an old, beat-up car versus how you treat a brand new car just off the showroom floor. With an old beater you dont think twice about driving through the mud, over potholes, or fast over speed bumps. You dont mind spilling things on the seat and you put in the cheapest gas you can find. You feel fine abusing a car like this because you dont really care what it looks like.

With a new car, however, you drive very carefully, wash and wax it on a daily basis, and park far away just to avoid other cars. And when you see that first paint chip, within 2 minutes youre out there with the touch up paint and polish to keep it looking like new. You care about this car you LOVE this car - and you take care of it to keep it looking and running new as long as possible.

Its the same thing with your body. Just like the old beat-up car, if you dont love your body, you probably wont take very good care of it. It becomes very easy to let yourself eat a whole box of cookies or super-size that order of fries. If you already hate your body, you feel like you cant really do any more damage, so why not have another cinnamon roll and watch some TV.

This reasoning applies to more than weight loss. It applies to all areas related to your health. Smoking is a great example. We know smoking does terrible things to our bodies. It destroys our lungs, causes cancer, and kills us. So how could somebody who truly loves their body do that to themselves?

Do You Treat Your New Car Better Than You Treat Yourself?

But what if your body is already in bad shape? Its kind of hard to love your body if its already run down and out of shape, isnt it? Lets go back to the car analogy. It may be easy to love a shiny new car, but a little harder to love something thats old and broken down. That may be true, but think about when a rusted-out, beaten-up 1965 Mustang convertible ends up in the hands of an enthusiast. That person loves that car no matter what shape its in. With wide eyes and ceaseless energy, he or she will spend a lot of time and effort restoring it until its back in mint condition. When its done, he or she is as proud as a parent with a newborn baby.

Why do enthusiasts do this? Where do they get the energy to restore something that to others appears to be a complete disaster and a hopeless cause? The answer is LOVE! Enthusiasts LOVE the objects of their attention. They see beauty where others dont. They see the promise and the possibilities. They can envision the future and know they can reach their goals.

Be Your Own Enthusiast

Your body is the same way. You can be an enthusiast for your own health and fitness. Love your body no matter what shape its in. Become an enthusiast! Restore it and be proud of the work you do!

So, begin by loving yourself. Start today and youll find its much easier to succeed in your weight control efforts.

The problem is that for most of us its very difficult to change the way we think about ourselves. This is not something that comes naturally to us. It requires overcoming years of programming weve received from our parents, friends, the media, and even ourselves.

Here are some steps you can take to change the way you view yourself and begin to win the Mental Game of weight control:

• Recognize your negative programming

• Replace your negative programming with positive affirmations

• Apply visualization techniques

• Use guided imagery

Learn More

The above article is a brief excerpt from the special report titled The 3 Keys to Life-Long Health and Weight Control. To learn more about each of these techniques, go to http://www.efflearn.com/3-keys.php to request your free copy of this 24-page report discussing the 3 keys to effective weight control:

• Nutrition

• Exercise

• Winning the Mental Game of Weight Control