When you start a health journey, it's typically because you have been given a diet plan or an exercise routine to follow, right?

And don?t get me wrong, both nutrition and exercise play a large role in reaching your health goal. However, there is one little known area that plays the biggest role of them all. If you are struggling to reach your health goals and you are sick and tired of constantly jumping from diet to diet, then I guarantee you are missing this one thing. Let me share it with you...

You may think this is going to sound cliché, but before you pass judgement and stop reading, allow me to explain all the reasoning and science behind it. When It comes to reaching your health goals, the missing ingredient is...

Mindset

And no, I am not saying you must start meditating and wim hof breathing every morning. However, not focussing on your mindset during a health or weight loss journey will most likely lead you further away from your health goals. 

Why Is Mindset So Important On A Health Journey?

The mind has full control over your thoughts and behaviours. If you talk down to yourself, have limiting self-beliefs or think negative thoughts, then your behaviours will reflect that e.g., self-sabotage on your health journey.

However, if you are positive, have a healthy relationship with yourself, show yourself self-love and believe that you are capable of more, then your behaviours will reflect this. You will find it much easier to make healthier choices. 

How Will A Mindset Shift Help You Achieve Your Health Goals?

Mindset plays such a large role in the food choices we make and the exercise we do. Put simply, your mindset has the power to make or break your ability to reach your end goal. 

By loving yourself and seeing yourself in a positive light, you open yourself up to feeling inspired, confident, and focused on reaching your health goal. It is important to remember that having a positive mindset does not mean feeling happy all the time ... it is more about accepting yourself and focusing on all the good you can bring to your life. 

On a health journey, motivation will come and go. When your motivation is lacking, you need to tap into your discipline. This discipline will easily come if you have a healthy and positive mindset. Staying disciplined allows for consistency in reaching your health goals. 

No matter what kind of health journey you are on, there will always be hurdles and obstacles to overcome. If you are in a negative mindset, these obstacles can easily throw you off track, forcing you to see little progress and have to constantly start all over again. However, if you have a healthy mindset, you will be open-minded, flexible and adapt to the situation at hand. This allows you to keep moving forwards towards your health goals, rather than away from them.

Fixed vs Growth Mindset

When you have a fixed mindset, you believe you are stuck and that no matter what you do, nothing will ever be able to change. For example, you believe you can?t work out before work because you are "not a morning person".

This way of thinking causes you to be scared of failing, and therefore, you never actively try to get out of your comfort zone and try something new. A fixed mindset will have you stuck in a vicious cycle of self-doubt, and you?ll never reach your health goals. 

When you have a growth mindset, you believe in your abilities and have confidence in yourself to try something new (even if you end up failing). You willingly put yourself outside your comfort zone to see if something comes out of it. Having a growth mindset will help you to put in the hard work that's necessary to achieve the goals you have. 

How To Start Shifting Your Mindset

Changing your mindset is not an easy task, and you have to understand that it is not something that will not happen overnight. However, shifting your mindset is absolutely vital (and worth it), as it will greatly improve your chances of achieving the health goals you set for yourself. Here are a few key areas to focus on when shifting your mindset...

Self-Talk

Take notice of how you are talking to yourself throughout the day. Whenever you catch yourself saying that you "can't" do something, intervene and change your internal language to something like:"'I can't do this ... yet", or "I'm working on it" or "I can", or "I believe in my ability to work this out".

To achieve success in your health journey, you need to first have the self-belief that you actually have the ability (and are worthy) to achieve success).

Comfort Zone

Test yourself and push yourself outside your comfort zone as often as possible. By doing this you are physically proving to yourself that you are capable of more ? you're essentially building a bank of evidence as to why you CAN do something. This builds self-confidence, which has a ripple effect on all other areas of your life and will ultimately help you to achieve your goals.

Next Steps & Conclusion

In summary, having a positive mindset is absolutely vital in achieving your health and weight loss goals. It's probably the most overlooked, yet important aspect of any health journey.

If you want to learn more about how you can change your mindset and achieve your own health goals, I'd recommend applying for my 8-week Elevate Your Life Program, which will help you build a healthier relationship with yourself, whilst working towards your health and weight loss goals.