A lot of us know that we need to make changes in our diet, exercise and lifestyle. We may even successful start making these changes only to come up against very powerful self-sabotaging behaviors. You may think you lack willpower if you have cravings for and addictions to food, but that's not true. It's not a lack of willpower – it's that there are very powerful emotional blocks and barriers around food for most of us and we've never learned the proper tools for how to address these challenges.
Most issues that we have around food are deeply ingrained and started when we were children and/or teens. Even though food is technically fuel for our bodies most of us have some kind of emotional attachment and habits around it.
In my ten years as a personal trainer and group fitness instructor I usually run into 3 types of clients. These three different types of clients all want to make some kind of positive change in their life i.e.: better health, greater fitness level and/or weight loss.
The first type of client I see has the desire to have "things be different" but they want an "instant fix" or a "magic cure" (by the way this is a good percent of the American population). They are not willing to make any significant changes or effort to move towards their desires and believe that I can give them a "magic cure."
The second type of client I've seen also has the desire to have things "be different" and they are willing initially to make some changes and apply some effort, to move towards their desires. But when things don't happen as fast as they would like them to, they quickly get frustrated and discouraged and go right back to doing things "the way they've always done them."
The third type of client is much rarer and I don't see too many of them. They jump in with both feet, make the changes, apply the actions consistently and move forward one step at a time until they achieve their goals. But once they get there and finally experienced the sweetness of getting what they wanted and the joy of vibrant health and their own perfect weight, they little by little start self sabotaging and making choices that are not in alignment with maintaining their success.
There is a forth type of client that I've seen, but I have to tell you that they are very rare indeed. This person goes through the exact same process as the third type. They successfully achieve their desired goals but not only are they able to maintain them, they keep expanding their desires and reaching for a higher level of health, wellness and fulfillment.
What makes this forth type different than the rest and what keeps them moving successfully one small step at a time towards their desires? The difference that makes all the difference is this. Not only do they change their actions, they change their minds. They change and rewrite their beliefs and thoughts. This quiets their inner critic – you know that little voice that keeps telling you what you're doing wrong and helpfully points out all your faults and sins. That voice that tells you things like, "you're selfish to want time and things for yourself, others needs and desires should come first." Or "you don't deserve that, who do you think you are?" Or how about this, "you're so fat and disgusting, I can't believe how weak and lazy you are." And here's one of my all time favorites "you've tried this a million times before and failed, what makes you think you'll be able to succeed this time, you're just a fat lazy slob."
Does any of this sound vaguely familiar to you? If it does don't panic you're not alone. What I've found in my personal experience with myself and working with numerous others, is that these types of internal comments are very, very normal especially among women. These types of insidious thoughts and beliefs will keep you stuck, frustrated and/or will cause you to sabotage any success you manage to achieve, because at a very deep level you don't feel worthy or deserving of it.
What do I mean by this? I mean that even though your "going through all the right motions" and doing all the right things – eating healthy nutritious food, getting the proper amount of exercise and sleep and keeping your life generally balanced, if you haven't changed your mind, if you haven't dealt with what I like to call the "junk food" thoughts; if you don't truly believe on the deepest level of your "being" that you are valuable and deserving – you're going to have trouble maintaining all those wonderful new healthy and life enhancing choices and a vibrant, healthy body!
They "key" to permanent success is your mind – change your thoughts and you change your beliefs, which naturally changes your actions and so doing changes your reality! The key to all your desires is within you and you hold all the power to make all your dreams come true – you just need to change your mind!
But how do you do this? If you've tried to changing a negative thought pattern you have to a more positive one you know how hard that can be. My favorite tool for releasing old non-supportive though patterns and beliefs and resetting your mind with new self-empowering beliefs is EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique).
To learn more about EFT and how you can use this simple acupressure technique to help with weight loss, cravings and emotional eating, sign-up to download my free e-Book "EFT For Weight Loss Success" click on the box to the right. Watch my video EFT for Cravings (box on the right) to get immediate help with emotional eating and food craving.
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