Do you know that believing you’re slim, trim and fit makes you slim, trim and fit? You are what you repeatedly do. That statement really does make sense.
If you go on doing things that make you feel unhappy, you will go on feeling unhappy. If you go on smoking, you will go on being a smoker. And if you go on eating the foods you eat and doing little exercise, you will go on carrying excess weight around with you.
The question is: how do your change? How do you stop doing the things you have always done and start doing things differently? How do you break old habits and replace them with new ones? How do you stick to your diet, and more importantly, take the new eating and exercising habits and continue them for life?
Well, this might seem like a tall order. But you can change very quickly and easily – if you want to! Sometimes we think it’s impossible, we think we need counselling, we need lots of help and encouragement, but in reality it just comes down to wanting to make a whole-hearted decision to do things differently from now.
When it comes to weight loss, we think the only thing we need to do in order to change is to diet. Well, yes you do, but it is our DIET than you need.
D is for Desire.
If you truly desire the outcome of change, you will get it. Once you know what you really want, you can get it. How much do you really, really want to shape up for that wedding, holiday, bedroom or whatever? Enough to make a change, or only enough to go on complaining about it and still expecting the slim fairy to come down, wave a magic wand over the flabby bits and make them vanish into thin air?
Think about 3 reasons WHY you want to lose weight. Think about how important it is to know what you want and not just what you don’t want. Don’t tell yourself that you “don’t want to look like the Michelin Man” etc. Tell yourself that you “want to look fabulous in your swimsuit”.
Forget the negative desires and start focussed on the positive ones. Our brains are like heat-seeking missiles. They home in on whatever is put in front of them. Tell yourself what you want and start putting your aims and goals for a slimmer future into a positive light. You can!
I is for Imagination
Now that you know what you desire, it’s time to let your mind run riot. You have over 50,000 thoughts a day. How many of them are negative? If you are like everyone else, probably quite a few. Your brain confirms what you think you are.
If you keep on imagining yourself as being overweight, you will keep on doing things to keep you this way. To make changes you need to fuel your desires with the imagination of how the change will make you look and feel. Start off by imagining how you will look and feel in six months time if you don’t change.
Imagine how you would feel looking in the mirror. How would you feel? Unhappy, uncomfortable, frustrated that you were still looking the same? Imagine the clothes you would be wearing. Would they feel good, look good? Do the same for one years time. Do it again for 10 years time.
Now take a different approach. Imagine how you will look and feel in six months time if you change your eating and lifestyle habits right now. Let your imagination really get into it – see yourself in that mirror, do a twirl, what are you wearing? How do you feel? How do you look? What might you hear?
Compliments! Psychologists say that to fix a new image in your mind, you need to repeat it at least 20 times. We see ourselves as we think we are. If you want to be slim, trim and fit begin to ingrain these images in your mind starting RIGHT NOW.
E is for Expectation
Expectations are important to slimming and, in fact, they are vital to human survival. If we had not expected to be able to learn to walk, the first time we tried and fell over we would have given up. Back in the good old days when as children we just expected things of ourselves, life was easy. When we expected to be able to do or learn something, we went ahead and did it.
As we get older, society tries (and often succeeds) in heaving its expectations on our shoulders. We are taught that it is okay to give ourselves a hard time, to be negative about ourselves and run ourselves down. The next time you find yourself giving yourself a hard time stop it.
There is no need to expect that you will fail – start learning to expect that you will achieve your goals. Start expecting that through the changes you make with your eating and exercising habits, your clothes will feel looser, you will have more energy, you will be more active, you will look better. Expect great expectations.
T is for Time
Everyone wants everything right now. Give yourself time to achieve your desires. Time to do it right. Time to shop for the right foods, time to plan and prepare meals, time to eat, time to exercise, time to weigh-in each week and time to use Support Central. Don’t say you haven’t got the time – make the time.