When was the last time that you walked into your closet and longingly thought about that old pair of jeans or that beautiful shirt that you would love to wear–after you reach your weight loss goals? There are so many times that we get lost in thought about the things that we will do, the things that we will wear, when we reach our weight loss goals. But what about the things that you can do and wear now?

Putting a smile on your face costs you nothing. It will never fit too tight or too lose, and it won’t get in the way of your meal plan for the day or your scheduled workouts for the week. What it will do, however, is help you with accomplishing everything else on your to-do list as you progress through your weight loss program.

When you are feeling discouraged, depressed, or frustrated in general with your weight loss progress, it becomes more difficult to stay on track with reaching your health and wellness goals. The reason for this is that those frustrations can be your very undoing.

Think about it: every time you think about how much you don’t want to eat your healthy prepared lunch, and would rather go to the drive-thru with your friends, the more difficult it becomes to actually walk to the breakroom and eat your lunch as prepared. Just the same, the more often you think about how much you don’t want to bother working out, and how much you just want to go home and watch TV like the good old days, the more likely you are to bail on your exercise plans.

Staying positive can have a huge and immediate impact on your ability to maintain a healthy lifestyle, not to mention reach your weight loss goals.

Here are a few tips to help you get started:

1. When you catch yourself being negative or complaining about something, take a moment and reflect as to why. See what you can do to undermine those negative feelings and to turn your attitude around.
2. Decide on a few healthy habits that you know can help you shift your mood around. Maybe you need to take a walk midday, or maybe you need to go to bed earlier at night so you aren’t as tired.
3. Do what you can to remove negativity from your life. If someone makes you upset or anxious, or constantly complains and makes you uncomfortable, then limit their exposure to you. Log off of social media or plug your phone in early when you get home so that you are free from those negative thought patterns.

Making simple changes to your attitude can have a surprisingly large influence on your ability to lose weight.