By now most people know by now that there are several important factors vital to building lean muscle and burning away unwanted fat stores.  You need to have a solid diet plan that includes frequent meals, lean protein, dark green vegetables, and minimal sugar and saturated fats.   A rock solid fitness program that has enough cardio and weight training to burn fat and build lean muscle mass.  Other important things include, getting enough sleep so that your body can repair itself properly and one element that people often fail to consider; the mind.

The single most important aspect of any fitness plan is conditioning your mind to believe and accept the new body image you’re trying to produce.  All too often people get on the right fitness plan and actually begin to see the weight drop and notice their clothes fit better but inevitably fall off the fitness wagon.  Unless you condition your mind to accept the new you, the lean and fit you, your mind will always see it as an intruder and fight to retain homeostasis or the old “fat” you. 

Extensive research has proven that it takes a minimum of 21 days for your mind to turn a behavior into a habit.  Essentially, you must force yourself to eat right, get to the gym, and avoid that donut for at least 21 days for your mind to begin to accept that this behavior is normal and expected.  After 3 weeks you will begin to notice that you are able to complete these functions with less mental effort.  It will become a little easier to eat lean protein and you may just find yourself walking into the gym without lamenting over the pain you’ll feel in your 5 o’clock spin class. 

Although, it takes 3 weeks to begin to turn behaviors into habits, it can be challenging for many to stay motivated for that long.  One extremely effective method is to create written goals and review them regularly.  But writing effective goals is a skill.  It is vital to write the goals in a positive light and as if they’ve already been accomplished.  You must focus on creating goal as to what you will do and not what you will avoid.  Studies has shown that you’re brain can’t compute deletion.  For example, the goal “I won’t eat donuts, cake, or ice cream to lose body fat and get fit” won’t work because your brain doesn’t see the word “won’t”.  Instead write your goal like this “I’ve been successful building lean muscle and burning fat by eating 5 balanced meals per day and exercising for one hour at the gym daily.”  Now you have written a goal that is positive, specific, and written as if it’s already been accomplished. 

So get out there, find an effective fitness and diet plan, write your goals down and don’t let up for a minimum of 21 days.