Each one of us sets out with a plan to get into shape and be thin. For some of us that means strict food intakes and daily exercise on the treadmill. For those of us that are not so disciplined we hire an in home personal trainer and nutritional consultant to make us workout and learn the proper way to eat and work off those calories in a safe manner. But even the best of us can fall trap to a psychological pitfall that sabotages our good intentions. Below are the Team Fitness America 7 things we do psychologically to make ourselves thin that backfire.

1. Buy smaller clothes - We have all been at the sale rack where the cutest dress is half off and also half your size but you buy it for the "Day I fit into it". This is the dress that ends up in the closet for the next few years until you finally donate it or give it away. Buying an item of clothing that is smaller than what you actually wear and hoping that "someday" you will fit into it will only make you upset for not being able wear the cute item. The best thing you can do is not buy it! Working on the goal of weight loss first will ensure that once you buy it, you are happy with it, and you will feel good wearing it. Save the smaller clothes for when you actually can wear them and buy them as a reward for the weight loss after you obtain the goal.

2. Use smaller dishes - Using a smaller dish for your meal is a great idea but if you find yourself piling the food twice as high or needing to have seconds then you simply defeated the purpose. Instead of eating half the junk food, you could be eating twice as much good and healthy food while using the same size plate as everyone else at the table. Trying to psychologically trick your brain into thinking that you ate a large portion of food can backfire especially if you are still hungry. You will overeat in the long run and not feel as satisfied. Stick to the normal size plate, just make better food choices.

3. Drink water before a meal - Drinking several glasses of water before a meal, we are told, can make us feel full. While in reality, drinking several glasses of water per day is already ideal, but you also need to eat a balanced meal and receive nutrients from real food. If you drink water before every meal, you will short change yourself on eating proper amounts of food. Save the water for in between meals or when you have the urge to snack.

4. Eat healthy all week then cheat because it is the weekend - This seems to be so prevalent that popular diet plans now have "cheat meals" and "cheat days". If you allow yourself to think that you can only cheat at a certain meal or on a certain day of the week, then you will inevitability overeat on that day and quite possibly starve yourself all week. This will lead to the "yo- yo dieting" and binge eating that is so common today. Many nutritionists will argue that cheat eating on the weekend will spike your metabolism into overdrive, but instead take a look at staying on track every day. There is a risk that eating a cheat meal or having a cheat day can draw you back into poor eating habits. Proper guidance will show you that some things in moderation are okay to eat while trying to follow a healthy meal plan.

5. Divide your clothes closet into different sections for "fat days and thin days" - Every woman may gain or lose a few pounds over the years but some women will lose or gain several sizes over the course of a few years while keeping an entire closet full of clothes from single to double digits. This develops a feeling that makes it okay to gain a clothes size because there is always clothes to wear whether you go up or down. Instead, set the standard, pick the clothes size, and stay within it so that you never offer yourself excuses.

6. Buying individual snacks or low cal foods and then eating the entire box - In the grocery store you think you are making the right decision when you buy that low calorie popcorn or bag of cookies. When you get home and eat the whole box "because it is sugar free, fat free, or low calorie" you just ended up defeating the purpose. A lot of the time we set out with good intentions but sabotage ourselves with the idea low calorie or fat free is actually healthy.

7. Using the word "diet" - Telling all of your friends that you are on a diet, simply sets you up for a failure when someone brings brownies to the office. If you restrain yourself, you will crave them while probably buying a chocolate laden dessert on the way home from work or having a brownie leading to explain to everyone why you went off your diet. It is simply much better to be able to have a small piece of the brownie like everyone else without having to make excuses for your behavior or worrying about binging on the way home because you denied yourself a treat.

Being able to identify things that we do to sabotage our weight loss goals will help in the long run. If you are unsure how, when, or what is best to eat then you need professional fitness assistance. An in home personal trainer can come and teach you about good healthy food choices, help you with exercise and help you break some of the behaviors that sabotage your living healthy plan.

To learn more about Team Fitness America, please visit http://www.teamfitnessamerica.com.