Ok, so you’ve read all the diet books, looked at all the training programs and have even gone as far as to set yourself SMART goals. Something is lacking though. You find you just can’t get the motivation to get started or even worse, you’re making progress but then find yourself slipping back to the old you. Sneaking in calories here and there and before you know if you’re back to the same weight, looking the same, being more depressed.
Does that sounds familiar? Well what a lot of diet and training books over look is the mental aspect of changing your body composition. At best they give a few lines about positive thinking and leave you to it. This can be a big stumbling block for a lot of people. Not having positive self images and having negative self talk will usually defeat you before you even start towards your goals. This can also apply to life and work as well as your body.
Now before I say too much more about positive thinking let’s get two things straight
1) I’m not one for buying into mumbo jumbo psychobabble so I didn’t just buy into this. It’s something I’ve tried for myself and found it to work.
2) When I talk about positive thinking people get the impression they have to be some in your face, happy clappy loon! That’s just not the case. It just means focusing on the positive aspects on a situation rather than talking up the negative i.e. look for solutions not problems.
To expand slightly on the second point. It is believed that the subconscious mind readily accepts what the conscious mind tells it. It is this concept that you can use to really help you focus on achieving your goals.
To give this some context we’ll imagine that you’ve set up your weight loss goals and working towards them. The problem is your self image and self talk is still picturing you as some over weight, unhappy person. Whether you realize it or not your subconscious will always guide you back towards that image.
Here are some exercises for you to practice. I can’t take the credit for this, I first learned about it from Scott Ventrella in his book “The power of positive thinking in business” and have adapted it to help with your fitness goals.
The first step is to determine what your goals are and what you want to achieve. The more detailed you can make your goals the better. For example wanting to lose 20lbs and 5 inches off your waist in 3 months is better than wanting to lose some weight.
The second step is to phrase your goals positively (also known as positive affirmations) and in the first person. It is always better to phrase a goal “I am” rather than “I will”. For example your goal would now be “I am losing 20lbs in 3 months” rather than “I will lose 20lbs in 3 months”. Also don’t phrase anything in a negative manner as the subconscious accepts positive messages better than negative ones.
The third step is to visualize how you want to look once you’ve dropped those 20 lbs or those 5 inches off the waist. You need to make the image as detailed as possible. Think about how those clothes will look better on you; how your body will look, how much more confidently you’ll look and feel. The list goes on. Again, don’t make the images and self talk negative. By that I mean focus the images on how you’ll be happy, lean and confident don’t focus on telling yourself you’re not overweight and not unhappy.
The final step is to write all of the above down — your newly thought out goals and the new image of you. Keep a copy of these goals with you at all times and look at them a few times through out the day. If you catch yourself thinking negatively don’t worry, just remind yourself of your positive goals.
Now don’t expect the above to be an overnight miraculous success. It takes time to change the way you view yourself but the more you do it the more your mind will accept this and help you towards your goals.
Also by practicing the above this doesn’t get you out of dieting at MacDonald’s everyday. You need to have your training and food in order as well as your goals and ensuring all three work together.
So give the power of positive thinking and positive visualizations a try and see how they work for you
