No matter how hard you exercise and how hard you diet, if you lose motivation everything will come apart. And nothing is worse than seeing all your progress unravel.

The bad news here is that many people do not know how to optimize their long term motivation.

Thus, here are 6 ways to keep yourself on the dieting bandwagon:

1. Keep your goals laser-specific: The more specific here the better. You see, vague goals lead to vague behavior. And if your behavior is vague you are less likely to get the body you so desperately want and need. So make things very specific in your mind’s eye.

2. Use positive reinforcement, not self torture: Many people motivate themselves by using whipping techniques. In other words, they exercise or diet in order to avoid something negative. It’s much more useful, however, to run towards something positive.

3. Run towards failure: You are going to fail, so don’t get all hung up when it happens. Instead, learn from your failure and never stop moving forward. This is the best way to make sure you get fast results. And keep in mind that the most successful people have the highest rates of failure.

4. Don’t rely on your mind’s eye for positive visualization: Instead, print out pictures, print out quotes and do whatever it takes to make your environment automatically motivating. In this day and age, your mind has to deal with too many things. Make motivation and visualization as automatic as possible.

5. Pay attention to routines, not results: Although counterintuitive, if you obsess over results you are less likely to succeed. You see, obsessing over results is an emotional roller coaster ride. Focusing on routines, on the other hand, is much more fruitful.

6. Make your mini goals time bound: Applying deadlines to your mini goals is a great way to make sure your overarching goal doesn’t remain a distant dream. You need to have some sort of time pressure in order to get things done in the most efficient manner possible.

The mind game is more important than the exercise game and dieting game. After all, once you lose motivation everything else will come apart!

Writer Katherine Crawford, a fitness expert and recent flabby arms sufferer, teaches how to get skinny arms. Unearth how to get sexy arms by exploring her blog with shake weight reviews now!

Tags: beauty, diet, exercise, fitness, health, metabolism, motivation, Nutrition, psychology, weight loss, weight loss program, weight loss programs, wellness, women, workout

Changing our day-to-day behaviors could possibly be easier than previously imagined. By meditating on and repeating motivational and inspirational quotes, we become better prepared to change our thought patterns, behaviors also, change our lives.

Here’s how it’s done.

If we believe something to be easy, we find little, if any struggle in accomplishing it. However, if we imagine something to be hard to accomplish, then our struggle becomes more apparent. In fact, if we imagine that it is difficult to change a specific behavior, then we will always find experiences that will justify that belief.

Take this for example. We wake up one morning and decide that:

“This is the day I start shedding pounds. When things get difficult, I will not reach for junk food, but instead I will focus on something else to keep my mind occupied. It’ll be tough at first, but I’m going to give it a try.”

If you continue with this thought pattern and belief, don’t be surprised to find yourself struggling more often than not. Why?

If we look at this example closely we find a couple of thought patterns and beliefs already in place. We have determined to do something good for ourselves, but we do ourselves a disservice by choosing certain negative thought patterns, beliefs and words that go along with it.

We have said,

“When things get difficult….”

(This is already assuming that there will be difficult moments! Strike one!)

“It’ll be tough at first…”

(This is already assuming it will be difficult at first! Strike two!)

“…but I’m going to give it a try.”

(Remember the movie “The Karate Kid”…”There is no “try”, there is only “do”. Strike three!)

Now there are hundreds of products out there that will assist people in slimming down. Some, if not all of them, may work for various people at various stages of their goal. But for many people who have convinced themselves that slimming down is difficult, some products may fall short when our thought patterns are stronger than our desire to alter.

Here is something that I’ve done to alter a behavior I no longer desired.

I recently lost 20lbs in about 12 weeks. I didn’t like the way I looked, felt or even thought for that matter. I needed to change and take some action towards it.

First, I realized that I had to change my way of thinking about slimming down. My old thought patterns were no longer working for me. My thoughts were like little tiny pictures that I projected in my mind of how heavy I was. I no longer wanted these pictures or thought patterns a part of my life. I had to choose a thought pattern and belief that would be easier to think about.

I chose this thought,

“Losing weight is easier than I thought.”

Perhaps not the most ideal for all but it worked for me.

Secondly, I chose a word I wanted to focus on for that day, week or month to help me in accomplishing my goal (Start with just a day, or just an hour for that matter. Keep it simple.) The word I chose needed to be in relation to the change I want to make. For example, I chose the word “FOCUS”, as I felt that that’s what I needed to think about most of time; focusing more on shedding pounds than gaining it. Choose any word as long as it relates to your situation. (Attitude, Energy, Action, Believe…)

Following that, I scoured the Internet for motivational and inspirational quotes that resonated within me that related to that specific word I chose. Quotes that I could remember, especially ones that really spoke to what I wanted to accomplish.

But here’s the most important part.

I needed quotes that were powerful enough to alter my thought patterns the moment I read them. Quotes that REALLY spoke to me when I my eyes fell upon them. Quotes that forced me to pause and think for a moment. Quotes that had that extra “edge” where my mind said, “Yes. This is one.”

These are all signs of a quote that held power for me. I “focused” in on the following quotes.

“All that we become is the result of what we have thought.” Buddha

“The only way to discover the limits of the possible, is to go beyond them into them impossible.” Arthur C. Clarke

“It’s not what you achieve in the end that matters, it’s who you become in the process.” Author Unknown

In fact, I found dozens of quotes that I resorted to from time to time, but these three I always came back to. They spoke of who I was, what I wanted to accomplish and who I wanted to become as I worked towards my goal.

I wrote them down. I carried these quotes with me constantly. I read them and meditated on them whenever I had the opportunity to. At work, home or at the gym (yup, I finally got myself to exercise, primarily by focusing on Arthur C. Clarke’s quote!), I focused on these three powerful quotes to help me FOCUS on what I wanted.

Because I changed my thought patterns, over time, I can honestly say I am 20 lbs lighter and a whole lot happier. I can honestly say I am 20 lbs lighter and a whole lot happier. Yes, I’ll be the first to admit that attaining the goal involved more than just thinking but it all began with my thoughts. The thoughts then permeated into my actions. (Now I need to FOCUS on maintaining that weight, so for me a whole new thought pattern begins.)

Here are the three steps again:

1. Decided to change your way of thinking about a behavior, making it easier for you to think about it. Phrase it in a simple way.

2. Choose a word to focus on to change that behavior for a period of time.

3. Find a minimum of three motivational or inspirational quotes related to that specific word that are powerful enough to alter your current thought patterns the moment you read them. Meditate on them and repeat them, silently or out loud, every chance you get.

Be patient. Stick with it. Give it some time.

Why do you think companies offer a 30-day money back guarantee? They know that if you do something for 30 days it becomes a habit and you no longer need to return it! (Learned something, huh?) Give it time.

The first step to what you want to accomplish is changing your mind and the thought patterns and beliefs associated with your behavior. Thoughts are the precursor to action, meaning that thoughts occur before any action takes place. That’s what needs to be changed first. Your thoughts.

It worked for me and I hope this inspires and motivates you to realize your goal.

Think positive.

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Tags: behavior, beliefs, change, focus, goal setting, goals, inspiration, meditation, mind, motivation, positive attitude, positive thinking, self help, thinking, thoughts, weight loss, weight loss programs

Although most people focus on the effect exercise has on their outer appearance, it also has a profound impact on your mind.

So here is how exercise optimizes your mood:

1. It teaches you to single task: In a day and age where multi tasking has become a plague, having an activity that retrains you to single task is golden. After all, countless research has shown that multi tasking is less efficient than single tasking.

2. It gets you around people: Even if you decide not to talk to anybody, at least you are surrounded by living bodies. And countless studies have repeatedly shown that being in social environments increases psychological well being.

3. More confidence hormones: Testosterone being the major player here, it does a great job at giving you a sense of dominance and confidence. In fact, high performers, on average, tend to have higher levels of testosterone than underperformers.

4. Increased temperature: Once body temperature goes up, every reaction in the body speeds up. One consequence of this is increased blood flow to your brain which in turn increases the rate at which you can work.

5. More feel good opiates: And you don’t have to take synthetic sources here, your body produces them naturally. Now for best results, exercise as hard as you can within your natural limits. This will cause the greatest secretion.

6. Alterations in neurotransmitters: This happens on two levels, short term and long term. In the short term, you get an instant increase in feel good brain chemicals. Over the long run, with consistent training, your levels of feel good brain chemicals can remain constantly elevated.

7. Enhanced sense of self: This can happen instantly once you know that you are taking steps towards self improvement. And once you notice the changes taking place, this effect will be amplified.

The bottom line is that exercise is the best way to enhance mental performance and well being. There is nothing else that comes even close!

Author Katherine Crawford, a fitness expert and former arm fat sufferer, instructs on how to do tricep arm exercises for women. Figure out how to get sexy arms by visiting her blog with shake weight reviews now!

Tags: beauty, exercise, fitness, health, lifestyle, metabolism, motivation, psychology, training, weight loss, weight loss program, weight loss programs, wellness, women

Did you know that poor work conditions can lead to more upper arm fat? Although this may sound ridiculous, research has shown this to be true.

How can we make such conclusions? Well, this groundbreaking research was done in England and showed how rank, among many other factors, can influence what you eat, how much you exercise and how much fat you carry.

And here is what can make your work place an upper arm fat haven:

1. Being the captain. Are you in control? Because not being in control is a primary cause of work-related stress. If you feel like you are simply dust in the wind, it may be time to start seeking a different position.

2. Excess tenseness. If you feel like you are in a constant state of tension, stress hormones are going to flood your body. And said hormones can alter levels of arm fat. One simple test is to assess how stiff your neck muscles are.

3. Poorly delineated tasks. If what you have to do is unclear, stress and tension will rise. And keep in mind that lack of clarity, more often than not, is your superiors fault. So ask for clear tasks. Tell your superiors how increased clarity will allow you to be more productive for the company.

4. Were you are on the totem pole. Unfortunately, lower ranking jobs lead to more weight gain and poorer nutrition-according to the research. So I would suggest looking for things you can do outside of work where you can assume a more dominant role. Doing so can help offset the negatives.

5. Letting your job title define you. You need to have other activities and hobbies that help define you as a person. Doing this will prevent the all too common emotional roller coasters that one-dimensional people go through.

Now keep in mind that changing your environment is much easier than changing yourself. So if you simply can no longer tolerate your job, please move on. Your body and your arms will thank you for it. And most likely, that upper arm fat will start to come off a little faster than before!

Writer Katherine Crawford, a fitness physiologist and recent flabby arms sufferer, teaches women how to get rid of flabby arms swiftly. Unearth how to get sexy and toned arms by exploring her blog about how to shake weight with sound approaches right now!

Tags: beauty, diet, exercise, fitness, health, lifestyle, metabolism, motivation, Nutrition, psychology, weight loss, weight loss program, weight loss programs, wellness, women

Stress truly is one of modern societies biggest foes. You see, not only does stress comprise your immunity, but it also increases fat around your organs. And this type of fat is the worst.

And please realize that even if you don’t have a lot of fat underneath your skin, you could still be retaining a lot of fat inside your stomach because of stress.

So here are 5 tips for making your stomach smaller by reducing stress:

1. Discover your patterns of arousal: And the best way to do this, perhaps the only way, is to keep a running log of events. You see, its’ simply too hard to keep track of all the details in your head. You have to have some type of record keeping to figure out what makes you go over the edge.

2. Speed up the flooding: If you are being flooded by stress or anger, let it flood you. The key here is to let it flood you while doing something physical. You see, biologically, you are made to deal with stress in a physical way-this is how your body best gets rid of it.

3. Be careful with words: Words are extremely powerful. A simple change in wording can make a world of difference. So never use absolutes and never use harsh words when talking to yourself. Many times, you will be your harshest critic.

4. Tap into your network, often: We are social beings, there is no doubt about it. And if you are accustomed to dealing with your problems on your own, it will be like pushing a boulder up a hill. Furthermore, studies have shown that socially isolated monkeys simple wander into the jungle alone to die.

5. Fill up your piggy bank: Doing so will help you prevent the biggest modern stressor of all: financial ruin. Too many people live lives full of fear and uncertainty because of money. By saving some day in and day out, you will buffer yourself against this stressor.

Stress should be taken very seriously. So if you are not practicing the above, please start implementing these strategies today, not tomorrow. After all, tomorrow usually never comes!

Katherine Crawford, a Harvard exercise expert and former flabby arms sufferer, is an expert on arm toning exercises that are designed for women. Learn how to get toned arms right now by exploring her blog on the best strategies to get toned arms.

Tags: beauty, exercise, fitness, health, metabolism, motivation, Nutrition, psychology, stress, weight loss, weight loss program, weight loss programs, wellness, women