Thoughts & Weight Loss
The Quality of Your Thoughts depicts the Quality of your Life ! So what are you thinking ?
If you have read my philosophy then you will know that one of the aspects that I believe is essential for weight loss and weight loss maintenance is Mental Clarity.
So why is this ?
Our core belief system is like the Book of Law that rules our mind. Whatever is in this Book of Law is our truth. We base all our judgements according to this Book of Law even if they go against our own inner nature. Whatever goes against this Book of Law will make you feel ‘unsafe’ ‘afraid’ ‘bad’ and ‘anxious’.
You make a mistake, you judge yourself, you find yourself guilty of making the mistake and punish yourself. Every time you remember the mistake, you judge yourself again, find yourself guilty again and again and pay over and over for the same mistake. You trust your beliefs, after all they are the Book of Law, yet they set you up for suffering again and again. The way we judge ourselves is the worse judge that ever existed.
As a result of our core belief system we then think a certain way.
Our thought patterns (mindset) create our feelings, which result in our behaviours. So for example…..
Thoughts/Beliefs ~ I should not have eaten x
Feelings ~ bad, failure, weak, greedy,
Behaviour ~ overeating, binge eating, I’ve blown it syndrome.
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Thoughts/Belief ~ I am fat so nobody will love me
Feelings ~ bad, depressed, unworthy,
Behaviour ~ Emotional Eater, Yo-Yo Dieter, Binge Eater.
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Some common mindset problems which can feature among the overweight…..
- Wrong Information – you have to be hungry to lose weight.
- All or Nothing Thinking – foods catagorised into good and bad.
- Rule Based Thinking – I should never eat X
- Helplessness Thinking – What’s the point, it didn’t work before.
- Fantasy Thinking – When I am slim then I will be happy, or I will never overeat again.
- Negative Thinking – I didn’t need that , I am stupid, I am weak , etc…
- Automatic Fattening Thoughts – I might as well have them all I am fat anyway.
- Beliefs about Food – If I eat one I will eat 6 !
- Beliefs about Healthy Food – Healthy food is boring.
- Beliefs about Health and Weight – No pain no gain.
- Beliefs about Self – No one will love me unless I am thin.
I could list several others but I hope you are starting to appreciate the link between beliefs/thoughts and weight loss. The greater part of most peoples thinking is involuntary, automatic and repetitive. The cause of excess weight is in your mind. I always say to clients in order to change your body you have to change your mind.
In order to develop mental clarity I will give you the gift of Awareness through exploration of your beliefs, thoughts (15 unhelpful thinking styles), attitudes, and assumptions. Awareness brings another way of seeing and dealing with things. It is the unconscious negative beliefs which create the biggest barrier to weight loss as they lie in our sub conscious so this means we are not aware of them. No matter how determined, motivated, desperate or heavy you are, unconscious negative beliefs can sabotage your best efforts.
Negative beliefs can also undermine your Real Self and over time create patterns of limitation.
To this end the single most important step on your journey towards weight loss is to make the unconscious conscious by becoming Aware of your beliefs/thoughts and transforming them. We will explore your core beliefs and once we address their origins, the thoughts will lose power as they are no longer energising the mind. This is where we become enlightened as we rise above thought.
The beginning of mental freedom lies in the realisation that You are not your thoughts and you are not your body. As long as you identify with your mind, your thoughts will be compulsive.
Identifying with your thoughts also creates labels and judgements that block you from accessing your personal power.
If you wish do a very simple exercise over the next 2 days to create awareness of your thinking patterns …. Start listening to the voice in your head (yes we all have one and no it does not mean you are crazy). Pay attention to repetitive thought patterns… try not to judge, or label, or analyse just be the watcher and listener !
So what did you notice ?………..
- Were your thoughts mostly in the future or based on the past?
- Were they consumed with judgements about your weight, your body shape, how everyone else looks great and you don’t?
- Were they about what you should eat, what you shouldn’t eat?
- Were they about others and how they are all judging you and thinking you are lazy, negative, and fat ?
- Were they about all the mistakes you have made in the past, all the relationships that were a waste of time, all the failed attempts to lose weight ?
The voice in your head tells its story, the body believes it and reacts accordingly, then behaviour follows. These thoughts have their roots in past conditioning example…. People can’t be trusted, life always lets you down, I will never lose weight , I am not good enough, I don’t deserve to be loved. They ultimately create your sense of self and the end result is you believe this is who you are. A grievance is a strong negative emotion connected to an event in the past that is being kept alive by still by constant thoughts.
It contaminates other areas in your life as the negative emotional energy can distort your perception of an event in the present or influence the way you behave toward people. Thought will keep this grievance alive long after it has happened.
Oh My goodness isn’t it a really interesting exercise !
So if you can relate to any of the above then you are not Present.
So what do I mean when I say you are not present ?
Being present means being highly aware and being in the Now. It involves compassion, understanding and non judgment of self and others !
There is no point in focusing on the past because it is over.
There is no point in focusing on the future because it has not happened yet. All we have is Now. The moment you realise you are not present – You Are Present !
Your thoughts cannot intimidate the Real You, they can only intimidate the idea you have of who you are and this is currently being derived from your core beliefs and thoughts.
So if you have any beliefs and thoughts that are not supporting you, then you are not connected to the real you which may be part of the reason why your body is trying to get your attention through having excess weight.
Think about it ?…..
When your head is full of problems, there is no room for the solution, and as my approach is solution focused we need to clear the decks so to speak so we can reignite your personal power.
The Prizes of Life we fail to win because we doubt the Power Within !
If you are seeing your weight as the problem then the likelihood is you are dwelling on it mentally and making it part of your sense of self. You then become so overwhelmed by it that you lose sense of your real self. The mental image or concept of ’my body’ is also a mental construction not an objective evaluation and this mentally constructed image can also create negative energy which makes you think you are heavier than you are (mental weight) and makes you feel heavier than you are, and at the root of it lies your identification with your mind and body instead of your real self. In the absence of thinking about the past and thinking about the future, your sense of self is derived from the present. You can only identify with the voice in your head due to lack of awareness. As awareness develops addictive patterns will weaken and eventually dissipate. Once you train the mind to let go, then the body follows.
Also in my approach I teach you how to believe in your power more than then power you believe food has over you and to look at your body without judgement from within. Body awareness anchors you in the present moment, strengthens the immune system and activates the body’s ability to heal itself.
Thoughts are thoughts. I don’t think we should stop them , control them or block them out. I do believe we can transform them . I believe we can guide them, and change the relationship we have with them.
So how do we do this ?
- Step 1 ….So I am thinking x
- Step 2 ….Next I am now noticing that I am thinking x
- Step 3 ….Now I am aware that I am noticing that I am having this thought.
It slows everything down, you become aware and can respond instead of reacting. You realise you are not the thinker, you are the one aware of the thoughts.
The Longest Journey you will ever have to make is from your Head to your Heart !
Namaste
Suzanne 087 2056560
