Successful weight loss or, more properly, successful fat loss, is not a matter of calories or exercise. What it takes to successfully lose weight is a motivated mind. Everything else, from following healthy nutrition to working out regularly, stems entirely from your mindset.

Now you may be thinking ‘But I’ve wanted to lose weight forever and it’s not happening!’ That’s not a motivated mind – that’s wishful thinking or dreaming about success. If your mind was truly motivated to help you lose weight, it would already be happening.

You see, when your mind is truly motivated you focus on your goals in a much more effective way. Simply put, you take action – massive targeted action directly aimed at achieving your weight loss goals. You choose healthier meals, you limit your overall caloric intake and you hit the gym or go for a run each and every day.

You don’t have to obsess over it and have it take over every waking minute – in fact, you probably spend more time beating yourself up for being overweight or obese than you need to use to lose weight. If you’re truly motivated, your subconscious mind will lead you to the right decisions without even thinking about it most times. You’ll eat when your body is hungry, and only eat enough to satisfy that hunger. You’ll choose the bottle of water over the soda or fruit juice at lunch. You’ll choose healthy complex carbs and green vegetables for supper instead of pasta or pizza. And you’ll push yourself that extra few reps in the gym or that extra mile on your runs.

So how do you achieve this motivated mind? Avoid worrying about the past or your current physical condition. Concentrate entirely on your future and who you’ll be after the weight loss. Don’t accept even the mildest chance that you’ll fail to lose the weight you want – know that you’ll do whatever it takes to burn all the fat you want to. Cruise through the magazines and online resources to find photos of what you want to look like – especially look for photos of people who have similar features to your own… Hair colour, overall build, etc. If you’re handy with photo editing software, even superimpose your face onto some of the digital photos.

Next, put the best of those photos where you’ll see them every day… Tape a couple to your bedroom door so you see them first thing every morning and last thing every night. Tape one or two to the bathroom mirror so you see them at various points through the day. And take 2 or 3 of the ones you like best, the strongest and/or sexiest of them, and put them on your refrigerator door so you see them every time you go to open the fridge. Put the rest of the digital photos onto a page and print it out, then put that page and the magazine shots into an album or some type of cover. When you feel your mindset slipping, pull it out and look through them again. In fact, look through them at least once a day and picture yourself in that shape, having achieved your weight loss goals, and visualize how your life will be different then…

You know you’ll feel better then, feel better about yourself, have more confidence and have more energy on a daily basis. It’s worth putting in the effort to keep a motivated mind working for you through all of this, and letting it guide you to successful weight loss. You deserve to be happier, healthier and more energetic – and your motivated mind is the key!