Your belief is your biology. With every thought you think, there is an associated chemical reaction and physical affects. – Attacking Anxiety & Depression, week three.

Depending on how long you’ve been a smart reader of Fearless Fat Loss, you may remember that I used to write daily motivational posts.

These posts were focused on your thoughts because how you think directly affects how successful you will be in transforming your lifestyle to get healthy and fit.

A very simple example is if you think negatively about your own ability to change such as, “I’m doomed to be overweight, I can never change, I was born this way, it’s in my genes”, then unfortunately, you’re right! You are what you think and it is absolutely true that thoughts are things – before anything manifests in the physical world there is a thought that precedes the action, the same thing being true for weight loss.

Week 3 of Attacking Anxiety & Depression

Week 3 in the Attacking Anxiety and Depression program is all about your negative thinking. You might be surprised to even consider that you are a negative thinker because many of us think that we are not. It’s much easier to be positive on the outside and help boost others instead of turning those same positive boosts around on ourselves.

You’ve probably heard me suggest many times that you treat yourself like your own best friend, the theme runs throughout my 31 Days of Loving Yourself Thin series. Well it’s true, and this is how you begin to become a positive thinker, simply by talking to yourself in the same compassionate way that you would talk to your best friend or cherished loved one.

Think You’re Not a Negative Thinker?

First though, you need to identify if you have a problem with some stinkin’ thinkin’. If you think you don’t have an issue with negative thinking, here’s a very easy way to tell if you ever allow those negative thoughts to creep in. Negative thinking makes you feel:

• Bad
• Fearful
• Ugly
• Overwhelmed
• Tired
• Discouraged
• Depressed
• Sad
• Angry
• Helpless
• Guilty
• Insecure

Negative thinking saps your inspiration and as you may have experienced before like I have, it’s pretty easy to run to the frig to try and make yourself feel better (emotional eating) when you’re indulging in that negative thinking!

Additionally, at it’s root, depression is simply negative thinking. If you weren’t a negative thinker you wouldn’t feel depressed and fear is a negative thought, fear being what worry and anxiety stem from.

The #1 Emotional Disorders in the World – Stress, Anxiety, Depression

Remember, we’re talking about mild to moderate depression here, an emotional disorder – we’re not even discussing clinical depression that often requires medication and we’re also not going near the topics of mental disorders such as bipolar.

I mentioned this already in my introduction to this series and I feel that I must bring this up again just in case you haven’t read my intro post yet (be sure to read it if you haven’t yet) or if you were thinking that the Attacking Anxiety and Depression program was a solution for serious mental disorders.

This is a very important distinction to make because it is very often the reason that people do not seek help for their stress, anxiety, and depression out of fear of being labeled as having a mental disorder. We are talking about the #1 emotional disorders in the world here – stress, anxiety, and depression, and the root of it all is your thoughts.

While that may sound over simplified, it really is true. If you did not think negatively about yourself, your life, others, and the world, you wouldn’t feel bad and you wouldn’t be depressed, anxious, and overwrought.

How Positive Thoughts Feel

If you’re not sure how it feels to think positively because you’ve been thinking negatively for so long, the way you can tell if you’ve got a positive thought is how it makes you feel. A positive thought will make you feel:

• Empowered
• Safe
• Good!
• Calm
• Loved
• Comforted
• In Control
• Healthy
• Relaxed
• Stronger
• Happy
• Up
• Energized

Changing your thoughts and getting into the positive groove will take time but it can be done. And again I want to stress how important this is – you’ve heard me say many many times that the bulk of the weight loss game takes place in the head and it’s true! It’s those negative thoughts that have been at the heart of my food abuse in the past and it’s something that I still need to be aware of.

If you don’t have a plan of action to help you with this yet, you could implement the steps that I give you in one of my posts I’ve written about how to use your brain to lose weight.

What I Learned

The point that really stood out for me in week 3 was that negative thinking is an addiction, just like being addicted to anything else! Lucinda Bassett mentioned (on the week 3 tape – tons of great info there) that we need to admit to being a negative thinking addict in order to move on and recover from this addiction just like an alcoholic must admit that they are an alcoholic.

I’m just like Lucinda and the other people on the tape because I would not have called myself a negative thinker. I strive to be positive but while I listened to the tape I realized that yes, I am addicted to negative thinking! That’s how I’ve been stressing myself out these past months and how I’ve beaten myself up for regaining weight, which in turn led to me not moving forward because I got stuck in the guilt (negative thinking!).

This can be hard to see sometimes because it’s just so easy to help others to be positive and treat themselves well and what those of us who are like this need to remember is to turn those same positive words of encouragement back on ourselves.

I’m Really Diggin’ This Program

I’m really liking this program and I’m glad I’m experimenting on myself with it so that I can share it with you. The absolute worse thing that could happen by me writing this 15-week series is that no one besides me is helped from it, but hey, that’s still not a bad result! I’m the only one who can let go of the stress in my life and create a fully healthy lifestyle, and while I sincerely would like to help you do the same, the power to do that for yourself is in your court.

What About Shrink Yourself?

I still highly recommend the Shrink Yourself program, which is focused on healing your emotional eating. What’s great is that there is often more than one way to achieve positive results in your life and you must go with what resonates for you. This is all about getting on that healthy track towards weight loss and full body, mind, spirit fitness and if you’re emotionally eating and/or all stressed out and anxious (and even depressed), then you’re not living a healthy lifestyle.

I don’t think that anyone who is an emotional eater can honestly say that stress does not play a role in using food to medicate. If Shrink Yourself resonates with you I say go for it (I achieved great success with that program and I still use the tools I learned from it) and I also recommend Attacking Anxiety and Depression if you want to take a different route to heal your emotional eating.

Stay Tuned for Week Four

Next Wednesday I’ll be back with my update on week four of the Attacking Anxiety and Depression program. I started it on Saturday and it’s all about expectations.

In the meantime please leave a comment if you would like to share the differences you see between how you feel when you’re thinking negatively and how you feel when you’re thinking positive, empowering thoughts and most importantly, how these thoughts affect your eating and exercise regime.

Make it a healthy and fit day for yourself and remember to treat yourself with compassion, kindness, and respect – the same way you would treat your best friend.