You want to change, you want to lose weight and reshape your body, get strong and healthy, but in the back of your mind, you doubt that your body can be anything except overweight.
Maybe you’ve been overweight for most of your life, and you have a hard time imagining yourself as anything different. Or, maybe you are a serial dieter, and the most you’ve ever lost was 10 or 15 pounds. You could have even reached your goal weight, several times before, but invariably you’ve gained it all back. Maybe you think that your body just isn’t made to be slim and fit, that it doesn’t matter what you eat, your body will not change, or if you do lose weight, it just won’t last.
Clearly, if you have these types of thoughts in the back of your mind, you won’t be very confident that you can lose weight and remake your body. You might be following a wonderful weight loss plan, but if bottom-line, you doubt that your body will cooperate and release the weight, then when you’re faced with those thoughts of, “I want to eat “that”, but it won’t help me and it might even trigger a binge”, then you could easily talk yourself into giving in and eating “it”. Why not, since your body won’t ever change?
It is possible that you could hang in there and let the results speak for themselves. For example, if you have dieted many times in the past, your metabolism could be so slow that your body just needs a jump-start to get it going. With the Six Week Body Makeover, a large component of why it is so successful is because it does get your metabolism stoked so the weight will drop right off.
So, even if you still doubt that your body will cooperate, you will see the results if you follow the program. However, if your doubts are so strong that you don’t stick with it, then it just turns into a self-fulfilling prophecy (I/my body cannot change!).
To turn these thoughts around you can use affirmations and erase those doubts you are having about your body. Affirmations are most effective when written repeatedly (start with 10 times a day), or when spoken aloud to yourself in the mirror. Affirmations are positive (or negative, you already use them) thoughts that are repeated over and over again.
Here are some affirmations that you can use to begin releasing those doubts and gain trust in your body:
- My body easily releases excess weight when I eat whole, healthy foods.
- My body wants to release the weight and live fit and healthy.
- I trust my body to naturally seek its perfect weight when I feed it healthy fuel.
- My body will tell me when it’s time to eat.
- If I listen, my body will tell me if a food is helping or hurting.
- My body loves when I treat it with respect and dignity.
- My body is on my side (it’s not the enemy!).
- When I consciously love my body, it responds positively.
Any positive affirmation that you can use to build belief in your body’s natural ability to regain its health while you are taking action to eat healthy and exercise will help you stay motivated and on track. I can also tell you that I have no doubt that your body will release that weight if you follow the Six Week Body Makeover.
The only reasons that I’ve ever seen people have difficulties losing weight when following the 6WBMO is if they were taking certain medications, or if they didn’t follow the program as it’s written. This doesn’t mean that you will lose weight every single week though because plateaus are normal, but that weight will definitely come off.
If you combine your solid faith and belief in your body’s ability to regain its health with a healthy eating and exercise program, you are bound to succeed.
This post is part two of a series of posts on doubt and its affect on your weight loss. You can find the introduction to the series here.
Depends if there’s pizza in site I would have to say that I doubt my body’s ability to lose weight.
Jason, that’s pretty funny. 🙂 It’s not really about inner, negative, doubts and beliefs, but it’s funny. 😉
On the pizza topic, I can honestly say that it’s never been a favorite or trigger food for me. Sure, I’ve eaten it (and overeaten it!), but it’s not something I crave.
Excellent affirmations. I find with my clients that you are right. You must feel as though you are able and deserving of losing weight.
Hi Marna,
Thanks! Yes, so much of weight loss, and actually everything in life, is affected by how you feel about yourself. If you feel undeserving, then you won’t allow yourself to succeed.