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Thinking happy thoughts may not automatically lead you to lose weight, but it certainly can't hurt your weight-loss attempts. It is obviously better to approach weight loss with a positive mindset than a negative one, since often your relationship with food is shaped by your emotional state. When you are downhearted and depressed the temptation is to reach for the comfort and familiarity of junk food, thus undoing all your good work. If you are not 100 per cent committed to losing weight then negative thoughts can soon overwhelm you and make losing weight even more difficult than it already is. At times like these it is good to be able to conjure up happy thoughts to keep you going.

Clearly happy thoughts alone aren't going to lead you to lose weight, as you also need to make substantial changes to your lifestyle. If you are overweight you have probably acquired some bad habits which need to be addressed if you want to succeed in losing weight. This generally means changing your diet to incorporate more fruit and vegetables, as well as complex carbohydrates and protein, whilst reducing the amount of junk food you eat, along with the fizzy drinks and alcohol you consume. It also means getting more active, making sure you get exercise into your day wherever possible so that you burn more calories.

This should be easy, in theory, but if it were then there wouldn't be as many people struggling with their weight as there currently are. To lose weight successfully and keep it off means adopting good habits, which is more of a psychological challenge than a practical one. It can be hard to do things differently in your life if you have done them in a particular way for many years. You might begin your weight-loss programme optimistic and determined, but you often find that your determination begins to ebb away, and it at these points in time when it is handy to have a reserve of happy thoughts to see you through.

There is more to life than weight, but seeing how far you've come can spur you on to continue. Trying on clothes which stopped fitting you ages ago, but which now fit you because of your weight loss can be a happy thought to keep you motivated. Perhaps you prefer to think of specific events in your life which made you happy or being with certain people whose company you enjoy. Not everything revolves around food and trying to remember that can help you put your weight loss in perspective. You want to lose weight to get healthier and to live longer and so finding any way which might help you achieve your weight-loss goal is surely worth trying, even if it is something as simple as thinking happy thoughts.

Learn more about this author, Michelle Wilkinson.
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