Is it time to Get Focused on Losing Weight?

Do do do do, do do do do….. Picture yourself in the ‘Light Weight Zone’

Can you see your future slimmer self in your minds eye? What are you wearing? How do you feel? How do you walk? How do you talk? What do you look like? If you can begin this journey with a positive picture in your mind that makes you feel good when you think of it, you’re already half way there!

So let’s get this picture established in our minds. How do you want to be? How do you want to feel? What do you want to look like?

Have you got that in your mind? Good… now we’re on a roll. Can you believe that it is possible to achieve that? Feeling a bit unsure huh? Does it seem a bit unreachable? It can seem that way, especially if you’ve got more than a few pounds to lose? Ok how about we focus on the first 14lbs in weight to begin with, small steps. A marathon runner sets off towards the finish line, and helps to keep themselves motivated by focusing on the next lamppost, when they reach that, they go on to the next, and the next until they reach the finish line.

So now what? Well assuming you now know what you want, and believe that you can achieve it, and have set your first goal i.e. to lose the first 14lbs in weight, you’ll need to do something… take some action…. nothing happens without action.

A good place to begin is by being honest with yourself. Get a notebook and pen ready, a weighing scales would be handy too. Now get ready…. weigh in (preferably without clothes and before you have a shower, both add pounds to the scales, which you’ll have to calculate and subtract…, keep it simple!)….. write it down….now you’ve got your starting line……… write down your target weigh loss…… now you’ve got your finish line…… in your notebook for the first week…. If you eat or drink something write it down….. if you exercise…. write it down….. at the end of the week…..  You’ll see clearly what you are eating, how much you are exercising and how much you weigh. Ouch….. the truth hurts sometimes….. Now’s your opportunity to see that you have control over your mind and body, this is where you get to choose….This is the exciting bit. The second week…. Have a look at last weeks list and see where you can change something……if you ate 2 chocolate bars a day last week, you might try 1 a day this week…. If you had only one walk last week you might try to have two or three this week….. at the end of the second week…. Weigh in again…… and you will see that by making a few small changes in the week you have suddenly lost weight…… now you feel excited…… now you see that you are indeed in control…. And you can tailor this to lose more….. It’s all about balance really…. If we keep filling our car up with fuel and don’t drive it…. The fuel pours out…. Messy…. Our bodies are the same……if we keep eating and don’t exercise…. We gain weight…. By keeping a record of what you are doing…. This will help you to stay accountable to yourself…. And will show you where you can make healthy choices.

Now sometimes the initial excitement  may wear off and you may notice that it takes a little bit of work to keep going forward with this…. and you may start thinking the kind of thoughts like……. oh I’ll just have that extra slice of cake, sure I deserve it, haven’t I been very good…..and it may be easy for you to give yourself permission to do this, and then you may have another slice and so on until you’re back where you began, or worse……. The reason this can happen is that we have neural pathways in our brains…. And every time we think a thought…. It strengthens those pathways…. And these form beliefs and habits which affect our behavior….. and if you’re over weight due to unhealthy eating and exercise patterns…. these pathways are already strengthened…. And it would be very easy to slip back into the old habits….. these kind of permission giving thoughts…. bring us into a RUT…and a RUT… is only a record of unhelpful thoughts…. and the way out of a rut is to have helpful thoughts……. now helpful thoughts are the types of thoughts that remind us that we have a choice to say no, or we can  imagine that  every time we get tempted to go off our plan,  the voice in our minds that say, go on you deserve it, sounds like Elmer Fudd or  Bugs Bunny or someone that you would never take seriously…. Yes laugh at it…tell it to talk to the hand…. whatever works for you…

And this would be a good time to use some affirmations…. and form some new neural pathways….. affirmations are short sentences… for example ‘I am in the process of losing weight and I’m enjoying it’, ‘I lose weight, easily and effortlessly’,  ‘Every step I take brings me nearer my goal’, if you just rattle them off they won’t work, the way affirmations work is if you can evoke some kind of positive emotion and feeling with them, really get into it, get a clear picture into your mind of what you want to achieve, for the less visually orientated it helps to have a photo or a picture from a clothes catalogue nearby, to help reinforce your goal,  you’ve got your picture, you’ve got the words, now make it feel real, don’t think that it is difficult, we have already done this by telling ourselves this for far too long, that it’s impossible to lose weight, you’ve been hypnotising yourself all along and didn’t even know it… It’s time that you got your mind working for you for a change…. So play act in your mind…. This is what it’s like…

You have decided how much you want to lose…. You believe you can achieve it, if you break it down into small steps and stages….. you’ve set you’re goal for the first 14lbs within a reasonable amount of time…… you’ve taken that outfit that you want to wear out of hiding or perhaps you bought a new one, and it’s hanging in a prominent place in the wardrobe…. You have a clear picture in your mind of what you want to look and feel like…. You are constantly telling yourself that you are in the process of getting slimmer… and you’re choosing to believe it…you’re talking back to any thoughts that tell you otherwise…. And you haven’t ended up in a straight jacket….. life is good…..now your subconscious mind is working for you….. it’s helping your goal to become a reality….. you find it so easy to keep on track with this….

Doing all the things you need to do… keeping yourself accountable… regulating your own foods… cutting down but not necessarily cutting out and you’ll keep remembering that bigger snacks mean bigger slacks!

Life is fair…. Life is fun….. you enjoy the moments when you are eating so much more now…. becoming mindful of the tastes, savouring, enjoying…. Not allowing any distractions … being fully present with your meals….. and knowing how much more you will enjoy the next one…. Without ruining it by snacking in between…… and you can see yourself stepping on the scales weekly and even if you’ve only lost 1lb…. knowing that you are now 1lb nearer to your goal….. and it feels great … Choosing your own exercise……you are finding ways to get exercise into your weekly routine, and even if it only means parking a few car spaces away from where you want to go, you know that those steps will all add up at the end of the week and will make a difference on the scales…..

And now all you’ve got to do is GET FOCUSED and make it happen! Best of luck!