Scene 1: You are flooded with emotion. For
example: Your feelings get hurt over a minor
altercation with someone you
really care about or you are so excited about
a possible job promotion, or
you are sitting around the house at the end
of a long day, feeling bored and
slightly agitated.
Scene II - You begin to fantasize
about that bag of chips and dip in the
cabinet or the cold, refreshing, comforting
mint chocolate chip ice-cream in
the fridge. You imagine how good that glass
(or bottle) of wine would taste
and how soothing it would feel going down.
Scene III - Your inner chatter starts
picking up speed about the pros and
cons of acting on your thoughts. One inner
voice argues that you deserve
something sweet and delicious - that you've
been working so hard, or you've
been so under appreciated, or haven't
socialized in so long.
Countering that is the voice within that
insists that you had promised
yourself that you were going to stop that
self-destructive behavior - that
your eating is out of control, your body is
in terrible shape, and that you
need to pull your life together.
Scene IV - You see the inner image of
yourself looking out of control, out
of shape and feeling deflated and your image
of how comforting the
"forbidden" food or drink would taste/feel
grows bigger, brighter and more
real for you.
Scene V - You decide that change is
hopeless and that you might as well
"enjoy" your life as you reach for the "bad"
chips, wine or ice-cream.
You may assume that the problem with this
chain of events is that you have
no willpower or that you really are out of
control and destined to fail.
This is absolutely not the problem. The
challenge is actually an inner
challenge and that is that you are ending
your mental movie too soon.
It is the above sequence of images
that is setting you up to perpetuate an
internal battle with your weight, that has
you ending up feeling like a
loser. By ending your mental movie with the
sweet, tempting taste and the
perceived comfort of the items that are
ultimately going to keep you
spinning in a cycle of failure when it comes
to living your life healthy, at
your ideal weight and in control of your life
and eating habits, you are
keeping yourself from achieving your goal.
Your mind responds to images and
internal voices. We may think that we are
moved by the outer world, but it
is only the concepts that we accept to be
true and valid for ourselves that
instigate our actions.
Therefore the only way to have success if
your ultimate goal is to be happy,
healthy and live your life at your ideal
weight is to create a new ending to
the perpetual mental movie that's on
auto-pilot in your brain. As long as
you continue to end your unconscious imagery
with scenes of pigging out and
the familiar feeling of failure, or with the
feeling of being satisfied and
comforted with foods that are causing you
harm physically and/or
mentally/emotionally, or with the pleasurable
taste of these foods, you are
going to continue to act on these images
whether you want to or not.
Remember the subconscious mind is not
rational. It responds to the images
that have been planted there, particularly
those images that are so strongly
imbedded over time due to repetition and
strong emotion. When your mind
sees that picture of you enjoying that bowl
of ice-cream, it just says,
"Wow, that looks good. Let's do it!" It
doesn't think about the fact that
you've just starved yourself all day long and
that you really want to fit
into that adorable blue suit, or that you
vowed to yourself just yesterday
that you were going to lose 30 lbs. by next
summer. All it sees is you
eating the ice-cream, deriving pleasure and
it takes going to the fridge to
fulfill this desire, as an order.
In the aftermath, after the joy of the
moment wanes, you sit in disbelief
over what happened, frustrated with yourself,
and filled with remorse. You
either resolve that it won't happen again and
start exercising furiously or
throw your hands up in despair and decide to
give up. "At my age," you tell
yourself, "what's the difference? I might as
well enjoy my life." A
feeling of sadness sinks in . . .
How can you truly avoid this scene playing
out again in the future? It's
actually simple. Observe your mind and
realize that it's the mental movies
that are running your life-both in a positive
and a negative way. If you
imagine yourself getting up, getting dressed,
brushing your teeth and going
to work-work is going to be where you end up.
But if you create a strong
image of feeling too tired to get out of bed,
chances are you'll call in
sick that day. Unless of course you counter
that image with a brighter
vision of the luncheon you've been looking
forward to that day or a letter
of reprimand from your boss that you want to
avoid at all costs-in which
case you'll probably find yourself getting up
and getting off to work.
It's the images we play in our mind that
lead us to take action. Our
brain always wants us to move towards
pleasure and away from pain. If we
create an image of pleasure-whether it leads
to ultimate pleasure or not-we
will find ourselves seeking that activity. If
we create an image of
pain-whether it leads to ultimate pain or
not-we will find ourselves taking
an action to avoid that discomfort.
Therefore to have ultimate success
with our weight loss goals we have to be
vigilant about creating internal mental
movies that support that goal. That
means ONLY running movies that depict the
true, ultimate pain of eating
harmful foods or living a sedentary lifestyle
and bringing to your
consciousness the result they cause in your
life. By not focusing on the
moment's pleasure of an undeniably enjoyable
taste, but instead
concentrating on the unwanted result, your
mind will naturally move you to
take actions away from those foods.
This will only be effective if it happens
at a subconscious level.
Consciously, of course, you tell yourself, "I
should eat the healthy food."
Or "I shouldn't eat the 'bad' foods." You can
tell yourself these things all
day, but if your inner mental movies don't
support the new, desired action
of actually selecting healthy food and
staying away from junk, you won't do
it.
Remember to make the final scene of
your mental movies strong and powerful
and make sure that scene leads you to take
the action you want to take! End
your movie by going further out in time and
seeing what outcome you are
likely to attract. Beyond the sweet taste,
what lies in store for you if
you eat that food? Addiction? Guilt? An
overweight condition? Tight
clothes? Social Embarrassment? Isolation?
Illness? Disease? Discomfort?
Frustration? A need for excessive exercise?
Make movies of these unwanted outcomes. Make
them bright and close and
clear.
As you run the movie, make it clear to
yourself that this is not your
ultimate destiny by any means, but simply the
direct result of what's likely
to occur, if you indulge in that food. Make
sure that the movie runs in the
present tense. This means that you don't
give yourself the luxury of
thinking that this possible fate is unlikely
or will happen in the very
distant, intangible future. Instead make sure
that your mind gets the
picture that this is the result of going down
a road where you eat certain
foods. Let it know that any action you take
today is much more likely to be
repeated tomorrow than if you had not taken
that action today. This way
when a voice pops in that tries to convince
you that you can eat this "just
this one time," you will clearly know deep
within yourself that there's no
such thing as doing something "just one
time." We are always heading in one
direction or another, and every action you
take just reinforces that
pathway.
Choose the pathway to health,
happiness, looking and feeling your best, and
living in control of your life and your
eating habits. Peer into your mind
and see the movie that's running there. That
is the vision that is
literally running the show of your life. If
you don't like where you're
going, change the channel. Eject that DVD and
insert a new one that depicts
you as the heroine-moving your body with
grace and ease, looking beautiful
and glowing from the inside, choosing the
foods from the earth that nourish
and sustain you, and saying "Yes!" to life!
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