Do you tend to notice and magnify your mistakes when it comes to changing your eating habits for the better and making your successes seem small and insignificant?
When you do accomplish one of your goals such as eating smaller portions, eliminating certain foods, or taking up physical activity do you Celebrate Your Success or minimize that success by telling yourself that it’s probably only temporary?
When it comes to tapping into the power of your wise mind for permanent weight loss and changing deep-seated behavior patterns, one of the traps that so many of us fall into is believing that change has to be difficult and also denying that it’s happening even when we have evidence.
Do you tell yourself,
“Yes, it’s true that I haven’t had Soda Pop in a month, but how long can that last?” rather than applauding your feat?
You can’t stop yourself from thinking a thought, but you can become aware of a negative thought and intercept it with a positive idea that counteracts it.
Celebrate Your Success and Replace your negative thoughts into positive...
As soon as you notice that unconstructive notion crossing your mind – replace it with a positive statement such as,
“I love drinking water. Water quenches my thirst more than any other beverage. I love how clean and light I feel when I give my body the water it craves.”
You can even add, “Soda Pop is a gross, sugary, carbohydrate-filled beverage that only increases my desire for sweets and carbs. My body only craves water.”
To increase your desire for water and your repulsion of Coke, make sure that your mental movies and feelings match your words.
Visualize the most repulsive image of soda-drinking that you can, and at the same time create a beautiful mental image of pure, clean, refreshing, energizing, healing water.
Feel how good the water would feel and how gross the Soda would feel if you tuned into the true nature of both substances (beyond your addiction to the chemicals in the latter beverage).
using imagery with strong feelings...
For your subconscious mind to change its preferences, you must use imagery coupled with strong feelings.
If you find yourself thinking, “But I love Pepsi – I can’t live without it,”
Realize it’s the addiction talking and know that you must fake it until you make it.
But don’t despair – your subconscious mind can’t tell the difference between what’s real and what’s imagined and will soon actually send you signals to feel the way you are now pretending to feel.
Remember that it’s your subconscious mind that is ultimately in control of your life!
You must program it to do, think, and say that which will lead you to the results you so desperately desire with your conscious, analytical mind.
That is your desire to be thin, healthy, happy, at your ideal weight, confident, and living your best life.
Not too long ago, I had the pleasure of offering a private weight loss seminar to a lovely group of nurses in Hackensack, New Jersey.
They were there because one of their fellow nurses had lost 40 lbs. and kept it off for one year after attending my weight loss program at Hoboken University Medical Center. I was checking in with one of the ladies, named Sue, to see how she was doing.
Her response was, "I am doing ok. I have kept off the initial 10 pounds that I dropped and I am making better choices. But, I find myself not listening to the reinforcement hypnosis audio as diligently as I had in the beginning."
The tone of Sue's response felt flat.
I could hear her disappointment in herself.
It saddened me to realize that she was not experiencing the possible joy in her incredible feat.
Dropped ten pounds in two months?
And feeling stable with that?!
That is a fantastic accomplishment!
How often do you and I, like Sue, negate or make small our achievements and instead focus on what we haven't yet done?
No wonder it's hard for us to feel happy and positive. We're constantly convincing ourselves that whatever we are doing isn't good enough.
One of the secrets to success is focusing and celebrate your successs!
It's necessary, otherwise, the subconscious mind thinks,
"OK, I'm a failure, or I'm not good enough, so I'll just do things that perpetuate that self-image."
Taking off 10 lbs. in two months and keeping it off is a wonderful accomplishment.
I advised Sue to, "focus on how much better your clothes feel (and don't rush to get a tighter size that eliminates that good feeling).
Feel how proud you can be of yourself when you acknowledge that you are still making healthier choices. Instead of beating yourself up for the things you haven’t been doing, commit yourself to start listening to the reinforcement weight loss hypnosis audio again, as you continue with your new positive eating and exercise behaviors.”
The more you encourage yourself, the more you'll find yourself taking all the right actions, including listening to your hypnosis audio sessions.
If you were climbing a mountain that takes 8 hours to climb, would you berate yourself because at 11 a.m. you were nowhere near the peak?
Of course, not!
Permanent weight loss is a process, like climbing a mountain.
Look back at where you were one year ago and acknowledge yourself for every shift you've made, even if those changes are only in your mind or reflected in your subtle behaviors.
Celebrate your success.
Yes, you are good enough,
You are worth it!
