Try These Secrets to Athletes' Success to Help Reach Your Weight Loss Goals

In this article: 

• To do their best, athletes don't just train. They also use mental tricks from sports psychology. 
• You can use these tricks to help yourself perform your best when it comes to making good choices for weight loss and health.
• Lark can help you stay motivated and build healthy habits for weight loss and health. 

What makes a successful athlete? Talent and training definitely help. But to be their very best, athletes need more. That's why there's a whole field dedicated to sports psychology. Its aim is to help athletes achieve their best performances and hit their goals. 

Many of the lessons learned in sports psychology can be relevant to you, even if you're not an elite athlete or an athlete at all. Instead, you can use these lessons to help yourself be at your best when it comes to healthy choices. That, in turn, can get you closer to your weight loss and health goals. Here's how it works. 

How Athletes Can Make Themselves Better

An article published in PLOS ONE reviewed 30 meta-analyses that together included hundreds of past studies looking at various constructs, or domains, in sports psychology. Athletes were mostly sub-elite or elite, and included some Olympians. These are some of the constructs that predicted performance or achievement.

Constructs Effect on Athletes How You Can Use Them Imagery and Mental Training

Athletes who visualize their training or how they will do in a competition tend to do better.

Try visualizing yourself making the healthy choice in an upcoming situation, such as ordering a side salad instead of French fries at a restaurant. It may be easier for you to order the salad when it is time to go to the restaurant and order.

Mood

Athletes with a more positive mood tend to do better. Negative moods, such as anger, fatigue, and confusion, are linked to poorer performance.

Some ways to lift your mood are to eat well, exercise regularly, be outside, smile, do good deeds, get more sleep, talk to people, and get (or give yourself) a massage.

Anxiety

Athletes who were very anxious or were outside of their performance zone (say, about to play against a clearly better competitor) had poorer performance.

Put yourself in positions where you're within your "performance zone" and not asking for something unrealistic from yourself. For example, if you've never exercised before, you may be setting yourself up to fail if you decide to jog for an hour every day. You may be more likely to succeed if you start with a goal of walking for 10 minutes, 3 times a week.

Goal Setting

Setting short-term and long-term goals helps improve performance.

A short-term goal might be to add a serving of vegetables 4 days a week, and a long-term goal could be to have 3 servings of vegetables daily.

Self-Talk

Athletes can use self-talk, especially instructional self-talk, to help learn new skills. Research published in Sports (Basel) says that positive messages (e.g., "stay cool") are more effective than negative (e.g., "don't worry") messages.

You can talk yourself through a new habit that you want to establish. For example, "I'm going to get a snack ready for tomorrow by cutting some bell peppers and putting some hummus in a container."

When you act like an athlete, you may succeed like one as you lose weight and achieve health goals. You may get improved health, energy, and confidence. With Lark, healthy choices can be part of your daily routine. You can even eat your favorite foods and lose weight.

Lark makes weight loss and healthy eating simple. With Lark, weight loss and healthy living happen when you make small changes that fit into your lifestyle. Lark offers tips, tracking, instant feedback, and friendly suggestions. Over time, small healthy changes can become habits for long-term success. Your personal Lark coach is available 24/7 through your smartphone so you can get expert tips, track meals, physical activity, and weight loss. 

The entire program may be available at no cost to you if your health insurer covers it. Click here to find out if you may be eligible for Lark! You could be minutes away from taking the first steps to hitting your weight loss goals and improving health.