For the most part, diet and exercise are not what holds women back from reaching their “lose arm flab” goal. The truth is that diet and exercise are actually the least important aspects of reaching sexy arm stardom!

There is so much free information out there that most women know how to eat and exercise in a relatively healthy way.

The main issue that holds most women back when trying to lose arm flab, is an inability to stick with something for extended periods of time.

This fluctuating motivation undermined my progress for a very long time. I used to read a lot of motivational books and listened to a lot of motivational speakers. I found, however, that these sources only provided temporary motivation that would always end up fading.

Luckily, I found some awesome work by David Burns M.D., that provided an extremely effective method for optimizing thought processes and maintaining motivation for the long haul. Central to his method is the identification of “cognitive distortions.”

And here are 3 of the said distortions that you should eliminate immediately from your internal dialogue if you want everlasting motivation:

1. Pressurizing statements. These types of statements are like using a whip to motivate yourself. They may work initially, but over time they will become too painful and your motivation will fade. How do you avoid them? Avoid telling yourself that you “should” exercise or diet. Instead, tell yourself that you WANT to exercise or diet. The slight shift in wording will have a tremendous impact on you.

2. Labeling phrases. Never give yourself a label when messing up. Labels indicate that there is something internally wrong with you which is NOT the case. So don’t call yourself a “loser” or a “slob.” Instead, describe the situational circumstances that led to the hiccup so that you can prevent it from happening again.

3. Minimizing statements. This type of distortion will make you go from warrior to worrier. Why? Because when you minimize, you see your potential as being much much smaller than it actually is. Do you know anyone that seems to have everything going for them but is constantly putting themselves down? This would be a minimizer. The key here is to not assume you don’t have what it takes until you’ve actually tried.

Learning how to lose arm flab isn’t just about finding the right diet or exercise program. It’s also about finding the right mental program. And with the above thought distortions in mind, your mental game will be as solid as a rock. Good luck!

Author Katherine Crawford M.S., a Harvard fitness expert and recent arm fat casualty, teaches women how to lose arm fat. Unlock how to get sexy and toned arms by exploring her blog about fat arms right now!