Improving your self-concept can lead to weight loss success

The right attitude and improved self-concept can lead to better weight loss results. Big changes in your life are made one small step at a time. And one step you can take today to help you reach your weight loss goals is to improve your self-concept.

What is self-concept?

Self-concept consists of three different parts: 

• Ideal self: The person you want to be
• Self-image: How you see yourself
• Self-esteem: How much you like and value yourself

Your self-concept plays an important role in who you are as a person and who you can become. 

Your thoughts shape your self-concept

Your beliefs are reflected in your behaviors, and those behaviors create your reality.

Your past experiences, abilities, and expectations for the future also affect how you perceive yourself. And the messages you feed to your brain about yourself, whether they’re positive or negative, will shape your self-concept.

This is no different than how food affects your body. When you eat healthy food, your body is nourished and feels its best. When you feed your brain positive thoughts, your outlook on life is more optimistic and your actions reinforce those thoughts.

A positive self-concept starts with believing in yourself

To become your ideal self, the person you hope to be, you need to start seeing yourself as that person. This is especially true when it comes to weight loss. You must first believe it is possible to lose the weight you want in order to transform from the person you are into the person you will become. 

Can your self-concept change?

Jamie Mitchell, GOLO Customer Support agent, describes your brain as being like a computer program. “Your thoughts are based on what you feed your brain and over time, they become your beliefs. This is why it is so important to pay attention to what we are thinking and telling ourselves.”

When you allow negative thoughts to be the only ones you hear, those thoughts will talk you out of your goals every single time. Which is why it’s important to take the time to change those negative thoughts into positive ones.

Thinking positively will reprogram your brain into believing whatever statements you tell it. If you tell yourself, ‘I am capable of losing weight’, enough times, eventually your brain will start to believe it. And believing you can do something, as we have heard for years, is half the battle!

Write it down!

If you have a hard time drowning out negative thought patterns, try this exercise:

Write down negative thoughts that come to mind: ‘I can’t do this.’ ‘I’m not strong enough.’ ‘I can’t lose weight.’  Whatever negative thoughts you have that could be holding you back.

Next, on a separate piece of paper, write down the opposite of those thoughts. 

Every time those negative thoughts start to creep into your mind, you have it in writing what you want to believe.

You can do this. 

You are strong enough.

You will lose weight. 

Visualize your success

Once your positive thoughts are solidified in your mind, you can reinforce those thoughts by attaching emotions to them. A great way to attach an emotional response to a positive thought is by creating a vision board. 

Whether it’s specific words or pictures, you want to curate images that inspire you and evoke strong emotions. Think about how you will feel when you reach your goal, envision what that will look like, and use those visuals to create your vision board.

Positive thinking and the right visuals can evoke feelings of confidence, strength, and empowerment. These strong emotions are what drive you to create real change.

Improve your self-concept. Change your life.

Changing your self-concept isn’t easy, and it does take time.  Make sure to take time out of your day to read and recite your positive thoughts. It may be hard at first. Your mind will fight back and repeat the negative things you’ve been telling it. But if you can feel those positive thoughts and assign emotion and importance to them, you can change your thoughts and reprogram yourself into a believer.