Move Toward Desire to Reach Your Goal

I woke up one day with 15 pounds on me that had never been there before. Do you know this one? I know I was there every day while it happened, but somehow it snuck up on me and I was living in a body that didn’t seem to be my own. I missed myself. 

Suddenly I was faced with the mountain of advice and struggle that so many people I know go through every day. For a year I struggled to pick out what might work best for me and give it a try. No results. A lot of money spent. A litany of reasons why I couldn’t work out today, why I couldn’t make more changes in my diet.

And then one day I cracked the code. “Was it diet or exercise?” a friend asked me excitedly, sure that the answer was in one of these pillars of weight loss strategies. The answer is neither. It is my mind, my internal state that has changed. It gives me free, easy access to both eating and living in a spontaneous state of actually craving what works best for me. I have effortlessly lost ten pounds and know that the next five to ten pounds will be just as much fun. Yes, I did just use that word: fun.

Here’s two critical things I do differently:

• Instead of looking in the mirror every day thinking “What a disaster!” and noticing how big I feel, I hold a vision of the body I want inside me. It’s more than just a picture in my mind. I actually imagine feeling that body, as if I had it already. “Be the change you want,” I tell myself. “Your body is getting lighter, stronger, healthier every day.”
• Instead of wrestling with myself every day about how I “should work out”, I set intention for wanting to do some kind of exercise or movement every day, then followed my natural desire. I ask myself, “What do I feel like doing today?” On days when I feel tired, it’s walking or yoga. On days when I have energy, I find I actually want to do something more active like a cardio routine, bike ride, or weights. I give myself permission to do even a few minutes of something.

As I focus on my desire, I am delighted to find that my body is now craving better food and more movement. I am no longer fighting myself, I am working with my natural desire and making progress continues to be effortless. 

These positive techniques are rooted in NLP, which I learned while I got my NLP Master Practioner and NLP Coach certifications. (I just burned a good hour trying to find a clear, succinct definition of NLP. Surprisingly hard to find. Here's a good quick definition, though I don't know anything about the training company behind it.) I found a number of specific weight loss techniques with NLP foundations that you might also find useful at HolisticOnline.com.

Comments

[Jan O'Brien]

Jane - Thank you for this excellent post - it hit home for me. I have to share that I struggled (past tense) with my own negative self-talk regarding weight and body image until I decided to change the state and my thinking. I love your two critical points of difference and will be incorporating the second one immediately!

[Jane Cavanaugh]

Hey Jan--thanks for sharing this. Curious what you found worked to shift your state and thinking.

[Jan O'Brien]

Actually it was as simple as trusting and believing in the concepts I have been teaching and coaching with my real estate agents for years...I became aware of my thoughts and without judgment started to change them. I accepted who I am as perfect and refining and began to experience more postive, supportive results. It was the whole let go - surrender - and trust the process for me.

[Marena Drlik]

Jane,
Thanks for sharing this, I do like your humor. You've exactly captured the self talk that is going on in many people's heads and the fact that your mind is a very big player in creating what you want. Isn't NLP a wonderful tool for changing the mind?

Something that dovetails with your post is how we recognize our every day successes (or not) and how that affects reaching our goals: http://wholelifehealthcoaching.com/blog/management-practices-and-weight-loss/

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Let me just add that weight loss coaching is rapidly growing in popularity in the United States, with the number of available coaches nearly doubling since 2000. I have been with a coach and is very useful, I recommended
Greetings

[Jane Cavanaugh]

I hadnt heard about weight loss coaching, specifically. I recently
started working with a personal trainer to help me take my workout to
the next level without injury. Having those appointments on my calendar
have been a really great motivator. And Im learning so much more than
I would just doing things on my own. Like any good coach, shes been a
great advisor and thought-partner. Combination of having information I
wasnt aware of and being able to reflect back to me what Im doing
that useful or ineffective. I highly recommend it too!

[Jane Cavanaugh]

Hmmm...Typepad has a glitch in replying to blog comments through email.
I see all my apostrophes got lost.