Sometimes it happens that people planning to lose weight equate their diet with the use of unhealthy or even threatening eating habits, for example, drastically restricting food, consuming only some specific nutrients while omitting other important micronutrients, etc. A study by Penn State researchers found that engaging in such unhealthy eating behaviors, especially by women overly focused on their diet and their own body, can lead them to experience significant worsening mood.
Research
Scientists invited women – college students. They chose people who take care of themselves and focus to a large extent on their own diet. One of the authors of the experiment, Kristin Heron, a researcher at the Research Center, claims that the mood of the participants of the experiment deteriorated to a large extent when experiencing seizures. eating disorders.
Heron, another researcher dealing with the above-mentioned topic, points out that before engaging in behaviors that can be described as unhealthy, the participants of the study did not experience too often depressed mood. It was only after practicing eating disorder behavior for a while that negative mood emerged.
So how do you improve your mood while losing weight?
Unfortunately, even when following a healthy diet, there may be moments of doubt and difficulty. You should learn from the above research and make sure that our weight loss method is not only healthy but also satisfying. For that to be the case, it is worth following a few tips to improve your mood while losing weight:
- Eat it five meals daily and plan them at regular intervals – this will reduce the likelihood of feeling hungry, which is often associated with depressed mood.
- Eat it healthy – this way of eating makes you aware that you are not only doing something positive for your weight, but also for your health.
- Follow the method of small steps – introduce the diet gradually. Don’t worry if there are minor deviations or other obstacles. It is important to remember that difficulties can happen. Such awareness and not blaming yourself for the appearance of minor “failures” gives you a lot of strength to overcome them and draw strength from them and learn for the future.
- Reward yourself. Introducing rewards for even small successes is very helpful and has a positive effect on the mood while losing weight. This mode of action is responsible for strengthening motivation throughout the entire period of using the diet.
- Use positive visualizations – in difficult moments of the diet, it is worth imagining yourself in the situation of achieving the goal – what will I look like? what will I be doing? what will change in my life? These types of visualizations are often a driving force for further weight loss.
- Practice together with friends – exercising during a diet does not have to be just a chore. It is worth including your relatives in it, e.g. cycling or jogging may turn out to be an ideal way to spend free time together.
It is also worth looking for your own your own ways to improve your mood. It is important to remember that our well-being while losing weight largely determines whether we will be successful. So it is important to take care of them.