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We have known for centuries
that our thoughts control our actions. It was written in
the Bible, "As a man thinketh, so is he"....and that was a
couple of thousand years ago....so it's nothing new.
Motivational expert Earl Nightingale said it slightly
differently: "We become what we think about all day long."
Thoughts are not just ideas;
each thought is an electrical impulse within our brain.
This electrical impulse sets off a chain reaction and brings
about certain results. Your success at controlling your
eating and your weight is strongly influenced by the
thoughts you have.
We all talk to
ourselves....and we do it in words, pictures and feelings.
And we are a lot smarter than you might think, because we
do this at a rate of three to four hundred words per minute.
We are constantly molding our self-esteem and our actions
with thoughts about ourselves and about our goals. It has
been estimated that by the time we are thirty years old, we
have stored some three trillion pictures of our self and it
is these three trillion images which define who we are. In
fact, our mind will not allow us to act consistently in a
manner that is not in-line with our self-image.
From the time we were little
babies we have been receiving messages about ourselves and
about food and exercise. Some of these messages may be
holding us back...preventing us from changing our weight. A
simple example would be the ‘clean plate club’ message.
Many of us were told to eat every last bite of food on our
plate whether we were hungry or not. Sometimes we were even
given reasons for having to clean our plate (children in
China are starving....it's a sin to waste food....mom slaved
for hours over a hot stove to put this great meal on the
table for you). Whatever the reasons...we were being taught
to ignore our body’s telling us we were full, and to
over-ride the impulse to stop and ‘clean that plate’. When
we did, we were rewarded...or at least not punished.
Now, the problem is that
since that time...that ‘clean your plate’ message has
replayed in your mind in one form or another every time you
sit in front of a plate of food. Maybe it is played without
you even being aware of it. Nonetheless, the message takes
its toll and we eat every morsel of food available...even if
we are not hungry. Each time a parent said ‘clean your
plate’, it strengthened this internal program. Each time
the program replayed itself, it was strengthened further.
Over the years, this resulted in a very powerful ‘clean your
plate’ program indeed....one that has played back thousands
of times.
Moreover, we have similar
messages about our ability to stick to a diet, drink water
and get exercise. We have messages about our own self-worth
and our chances of success. We have programs about what
kinds of food tastes good and what foods need to be eaten at
certain meals or on certain holiday occasions… popcorn at
the movies....turkey at Thanksgiving....and have you ever
had divinity candy anytime other than Christmas or
holidays? Food is a central part of our life and it's
estimated that at least half of the three trillion images we
have, relate in some way or another to food or our ability
to achieve our healthy weight goal.
Can we re-program? Sure!
Is it hard? It’s easier for some than others. So, we are
going to do some exercises today that will help us
reprogram.
First we need to make an
extremely valuable point. Several years ago an experiment
was conducted with a class of high school basketball
players. These young men who had similar skills on the
basketball court were divided into three groups. Each group
was tested to see what percentage of free throw shots they
could make.
Then, the first group was
told not to practice shooting free throws in the gym for one
month. Group two was told to practice for an hour every
afternoon and the third group was told to practice shooting
free throws in their imaginations only, for one hour
a day, during that same month.
At the end of the month, the
players were tested again. The first group that wasn't
allowed to practice decreased their average. Group two, who
practiced an hour a day, increased by an average of two
percentage points overall. And group three....who had only
practiced in their mind...increased by the same 2 percentage
points as the group that practiced in the gym everyday.
The point is that the mind
cannot distinguish between physical programming, such as
throwing free throws (or leaving food on your plate) and
mental programming such as imagining free throws or
imagining leaving food on your plate. This is
extremely important. It means that we can create or enhance
existing programs through mental practice. That's what
self-talk affirmations are all about.
The purpose of the
self-affirmations is to reprogram certain areas of your mind
in order to give you a fighting chance to overcome programs
that are preventing your success.
Exercises:
1. Our first exercise is to
think for a minute what some of those old images are that
might be holding us back, i.e., things that we were told as
children or young adults that may be leading us astray in
our weight loss efforts. Make a list.
Here are some examples:
Eat all your food, children
are starving in China (Bangladesh, Uganda, wherever).
You can not go out to play
(watch TV, whatever) until you clean your plate, etc.
Think how these images and
old lessons from the past might be hindering your efforts.
2. Let’s make some
affirmations for ourselves. Affirmations can never be in
the negative. Never say, “I don’t do such and such,” or “I
never will do such and such.” They must always be stated in
the positive. “I am....” or “I will…” or “I (verb)…”
They also should be stated
as if it is true at the present time, even if the statement
is not true right now. They will become true shortly, so
you need to reprogram your mind now!
For example: to overcome the
clean plate program you should say the affirmation
"I leave some food on my
plate every meal!"
Say it out loud.
To see your eventual goal
weight, say:
“I weigh 120 pounds
(whatever your goal weight is) because I do all those things
that I need to do to weigh 120 pounds.”
Examples:
I am a good person.
I live the lifestyle of a
healthy slim trim person.
I buy only healthy foods for
my family.
Write down 5 very simple,
direct and positive affirmations for yourself. Put these on
a 3 x 5 index card and have it in a very visible place at
home. Repeat OUT LOUD all five at least twice a day,
morning and evening. |
