Motivation is Mental!
Mind over matter!! Studies have shown that sticking to regular schedule of exercise and eating right really is an exertion of your mental muscles. Turns out that exercising not only your body but also your brain is proving to be effective in helping people make smarter choices when it comes to healthy habits
Memory building activities & positive thinking can help control our impulses to choose unhealthy habits. Research shows that people who followed challenging cognitive training regimens like memory building activities made fewer bad or un-healthy choices. Besides brain training activities, you can also practice positive thinking to make healthy changes in your life.
Write down your goals and talk to yourself in proactive terms. Rather than making sure that you do NOT miss going to the gym or that you do NOT eat an unhealthy snack, tell yourself when you plan to go to the gym and what you will
eat when you are hungry, instead of what you will NOT.
There is a true science behind portion control. Studies have shown that people with incredible willpower have different brain activity than those with no control, and that "training or exercising" the part of the brain that controls willpower can increase brain activity. The prefrontal cortex is the area of the brain responsible for the brain processes involved in planning, impulse control,
willpower, and abstract thinking. Researchers found that dieters, who were making a concerted effort to eat better and lose weight, had a different brain response in their prefrontal cortex than non dieters. The dieters showed increased brain response to health and tastiness, while the non dieters only responded to tastiness.
Be specific if you want to train your brain to choose healthy foods over fattening ones. There are two kinds of intentions: "goal" intentions which are broad and general (I need to eat better) and "implementation" intentions that are more specific (I need to only eat meals that I prepare myself). When you are too general, the brain is less likely to change its behavior, however, when you are more specific, it has to do less work on its own to help you achieve your goal. This is especially true of weight loss stategies.
Physical fitness is mental. More benefit can be seen from doing physical exercise and brain training together. Studies have found that exercise can lead to new brain cells being formed and exercising your brain can help to increase willpower. So, doing both together can help yourself even harder. But even if you exercise your body alone, you will reap the benefits. When you exercise on a regular schedule and for a duration of at least 6 months, you can actually change your brain to respond differently to food cues.
