Affirmation

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MAGIC HELP Touchstones for Weight Loss Part 8 ‘L’

Saturday, July 12th, 2008

Our ‘L’ touchstone is for language. One of the stumbling blocks to our success in changing our lifestyle and habits is the language, or word choices, we use when talking and thinking about ourselves and our lifestyle changes. These are the two areas I want to discuss.

If you have been reading my posts, you know I keep bringing up to be kind to yourself. Most of us have heard or witnessed someone being beaten down by the words of another. Sadly, we tend to be even harder on ourselves.

What names do you call yourself? Fatso, loser, dumb, stupid, unworthy, unable, etc. Or do you call yourself a victor, a winner, deserving, smart, persistent? Do you tell yourself you can never get fit or slimmer? Or do you honestly believe that you can achieve your goal and change?

Remember touchstone ‘I’? If our self-image is bad, it is very hard to succeed. In fact, we work very hard at proving that we can’t. Don’t we have enough to deal with in this world without beating ourselves up?

I want you to write down some affirmations that you can post all over the house, your room, your car, your work, or wherever you spend a lot of time. Write down things like “I can do it”, “I am not perfect, but I am getting there”, “I am a caring person”, etc. Be sure to include this one: “I deserve to be a healthier, slimmer me”. You will be surprised how that one helps when you are tempted to eat off plan or don’t want to do your exercise.

Let’s go on to the way you think about your diet program. Do you think of it as something you ‘have’ to do because it is expected of you? Do you talk about how you ’should’ do this or that? Or even ’shouldn’t’ do this or that. How about the ‘can’t’ word? or the phrase ‘I don’t have time’? Do you think – it would be nice if I could obtain my goal, but that’s impossible or improbable?

Instead, why don’t do this:

Change: “I should go for a walk today”

To: “I choose to go for a walk today because it makes me feel energized, less stressed, and good about myself”.

NOTE: Always give 2 or 3 positive reasons why you choose it.

Change: “I don’t have time to prepare my snacks”

To: “I am going to switch my schedule around to have time to prepare my snacks and meals because I deserve to take care of myself, I deserve to succeed in my program, and it helps to eat on program when I have something I can eat ready”.

Change: “I can’t eat right this weekend because I have to go on a trip”

To: “I choose to find a way to stay on my eating program and go on the trip. I will eat salads with low fat dressings; take snacks with me, etc. I will plan ahead how to deal with the obstacles the trip makes in my eating program”.

Change: “It would be nice if I could obtain my goal, but that’s impossible or improbable?”

To: “I will achieve my goal because I deserve to be a happier, healthier, slimmer me AND because I choose to”.

Do you notice that when you use should and have to, that makes the changes you are trying to make an obligation. When you use choose and will, then it makes it your choice. Again, see touchstone ‘C’ Choices.

As with all habits, the change in your language will not come overnight. You have to consciously change the word whenever you use it to a positive word. As your language changes, so will your thinking. As your thinking about yourself and your eating program changes, it becomes easier to change your eating and activity habits. You are on the road to success!

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Tags: affirmation, Affirmations, alternate behavoirs, attitude, choices, Diet Program, emotional eating, exercise, habits, health, Lifestyle Changes, Loser, self-image, success, touchstone, Touchstones, Weight Loss, weight managment, Word Choices
Posted in Weight Loss, Weight Management, affirmation, alternate behavoirs, attitude, choices, emotional eating, habits, health, self-image, success, touchstone | 1 Comment »

MAGIC HELP Touchstones for Weight Loss Part 4 ‘I’

Saturday, July 5th, 2008

Today’s touchstone is ‘I‘. This is the one where you have to change your way of thinking about yourself and about your eating program. So lets call ‘I’ image short for Self-Image.

What is your image of yourself? Do you feel like you are a failure? Do you feel like you cannot do anything right? Or tell yourself that even if you feel you can? Do you feel undeserving or unappreciated or unwanted?

I am here to tell you – you were made to be healthy and fit – therefore you deserve to be healthy and fit.

Who benefits if you become more healthy and fit? YOU. Who pays the penalty if you don’t? Again, the answer is YOU. So you have to start your journey for YOU, not anyone else. If you are overweight, you can become healthier by losing just 10% of your body weight. Check out the post Why Should Baby Boomers Lose Weight. There are a multitude of health conditions you can avoid or delay just by losing 10% of your body weight. This is motivation you can hang on to, no matter how you feel about yourself.

Let’s look at a person, Sally, as ‘ME’ ‘MYSELF’ and ‘I’. Let’s say ‘I’ is the standard keeper. ‘I’ watches to see that ‘ME’ does everything ‘right’. ‘I’ will tell ‘ME’ every time something happens that it is ‘ME’s’ fault. ‘I’ will tell ‘ME’ that ‘ME’ is lazy, dumb, ugly, clumsy, and responsible for everything. ‘I’ will badger and bad mouth ‘ME’ at any given moment because ‘ME’ is not perfect. Poor ‘ME’ is beaten down and sad. ‘ME’ is depressed. ‘ME’ is rebellious because ‘ME’ does not believe ‘ME’ is a bad person. ‘ME’ feels that ‘ME’ deserves good and deserves rewards once in a while.

In the diet, ‘I’ says: ‘ME’ - Sally can’t eat that apple pie Sally loves, never ever. ‘ME’ sits and wants that apple pie. ‘ME’ tries to be good, but keeps thinking about that apple pie. Finally ‘ME’ thinks – I don’t care what ‘I’ says, I want that apple pie and I am going to eat it. And ‘ME’ does – the whole pie.

In comes ‘MYSELF’ . Have ‘MYSELF’ mediate between ‘I’ and ‘ME’ . Let ‘MYSELF’ tell ‘I’ and ‘ME’ that they are really both wanting the best for Sally. They are just at odds. Get ‘I’ to realize that ‘I’ is hurting Sally when ‘I’ badgers ‘ME’ and that ‘I’ needs to be nice to ‘ME’. Get ‘ME’ to see that ‘I’ only wants what is best for Sally, just like ‘ME’ does. Have ‘MYSELF’ convince ‘I’ and ‘ME’ to work as a team, building each other up, not fighting. ‘MYSELF’ can get ‘ME’ and ‘I’ to compromise, to let Sally eat a small piece of apple pie – maybe have Sally do 10 minutes more on her aerobics that day to offset it.