The Psychology Of Arm Toning
Saturday, January 30th, 2010It took a lot of trial and error to figure out how to get arm tone and as a result, flabby arms were the thorn in my side for a very long time. I was extremely frustrated and resorted to hiding behind kimono-style tops all the time.
And the most difficult part of the whole arm tone war was an unstable level of motivation. Despite all my efforts, I could not stick with a program for a very long time.
At times I would feel so unmotivated that I would simply ditch the whole effort all together. And my consolation was an endless consumption of cookies.
One day I had a wake-up call and realized that if I couldn’t figure out a way to stick with a program for the long run, I would never be able to get sexy arms. And I also knew that this motivational “yo yoing” wasn’t sustainable.
As a result, I began searching for a way to maintain motivation and adherence to a program. The answer to my prayers was Dr David Burns MD. He created a method that revolved around the avoidance of cognitive distortions.
So without further delay, here are 3 cognitive distortions you need to avoid that you don’t fall of the arm tone bandwagon:
1. All/Nothing distortions. These distortions provide the foundation for perfectionism. If you find yourself having to have the perfect day of dieting or not dieting at all, then you suffer from this distortion. Don’t try to get everything right every single time. Don’t worry about small hiccups and always keep moving forward.
2. Over-generalizing distortions. Just because you haven’t been successful today doesn’t mean you can’t be successful tomorrow. You simply haven’t found the right approach. Yet with this distortion, you assume that your past failures will keep on being your future failures. The key here is to keep on trying new things with a fresh outlook.
3. Mental-filters distortions. This one his horrible because it forces you to focus on the negative instead of the positive. If you have a solid day of healthy eating, but slightly veer off and have a small amount of junk food you only focus on the junk food. But what about all the other healthy food you ate? Always give yourself credit for the positive.
Avoiding the above distortions will seriously help you achieve lasting motivation when trying to get arm tone. And lasting motivation is the key to sexy arm stardom.
One more thing, it’s very important that you act on this advice sooner rather than later. You see, taking action quickly is the fastest way to get great results.
Katherine Crawford M.S., a Harvard exercise physiologist and recent arm fat victim, is an expert on exercises for flabby arms for women. Learn how to get toned arms right now by exploring her blog on arm flab.