When you think about losing weight, you probably think: I have to go on a diet and deprive myself of the foods that I like to eat. I have to work out, and working out is no fun. I should stop drinking, but I really don’t want to.

These negative thoughts are understandable, but they are not conducive to motivating you to lose weight. They are sabotaging traps that keep you from action and perpetuate the problem. Its your body’s fear response kicking into overdrive because it thinks it is going to be deprived of something whether food, the level of relaxation its used to or the amount of alcohol its accustomed to.

When you think like that, you are attempting to storm the gates of a heavily defended castle. Your odds of succeeding are stacked against you. Instead of trying the direct approach, why not decide on coming in from a different angle?

Steve Pavlina, in his article, Do It Now, suggests grabbing a dumbbell equivalent to the excess weight that you want to get rid of and picking it up. Feel how heavy it is? Walk around with it a little while. Just carry it for a few minutes. It’s a pain isn’t it? Now consider that you are lugging this excess weight around with you every single day. Isn’t that awful? Can you imagine how much easier everything in your life might be if you didn’t have to carry that excess weight around?

Crickie points out that she thinks about the weight in terms of sacks of flour. This is a powerful visual. Think about the number of sacks of flour it would take to make up the excess weight that you want to lose, and then visualize strapping them to your back and carrying them around with you on a day to day basis. Not only will you start feeling like you’re the new Hunchback of Notre Dame, you’ll probably also have some idea of the wasted energy that you are throwing away every day carrying around all that unwanted and unneeded weight.

So when you start thinking about eating less, working out more, or drinking less, don’t focus on what you are doing, but focus on all that extra weight you are hauling around with you. That should make it easier to storm that castle, from the less defended side entrance.