You’ve heard the saying before, “You Are What You Eat”? Well the same holds true for what you think: you are what you think about (all day long!). What you create in your life, from your relationships, to your job, to your body, all starts with those thoughts you have running around in your head. 😉
What if every day you were to tell yourself that you love to exercise, you easily maintain your weight, and you feel great? What if you also told yourself that you eat like a fit person? This would lead you to think about how fit, healthy people eat, which is: eating only when hungry, and stopping when full. You would also think about other habits of “naturally” thin, healthy, fit people: water is always at hand, and they mainly eat a diet consisting of fruits and vegetables, complex carbohydrates, and lean protein.
Fit people regularly exercise instead of living a sedentary lifestyle. If you tell yourself day in and day out that you are a fit, healthy individual who loves to eat healthy foods, drink water, and exercise, you will eventually “turn into” that person through your actions, fueled by your thoughts. Your subconscious mind will go to work for you to bring these thoughts to fruition, and you will naturally change. That is, as long as you continually think these types of thoughts about yourself, and you don’t have unconscious negative beliefs working against you.
Here’s an exercise you can do to determine where you are at today: for an entire day, carry a small, palm-sized notebook around and jot down your thoughts every 15-30 minutes, or even more frequently if you can; it depends on your schedule. It will take conscious effort on your part and will be easy to forget about unless you stay on top of it, but you will learn a tremendous amount about yourself.
The reason this isn’t an easy exercise to do is because many of us are so used to living in an unconscious manner, coasting on auto-pilot. However, the key is in becoming conscious of what your repeated thoughts are.
Whatever you are mainly thinking about yourself is the reason that you are where you are today. It will be clear to you when you discover both your positive and negative thoughts, your self-talk. You will understand how you came to be where you are today, which instead of being an exercise in regrets, is an exercise in empowerment. You see, if you are where you are today because of what you’ve been thinking, it follows that when you change your thoughts, you will lead yourself to a different outcome.
For example, if you’ve been thinking that you don’t deserve good things in your life, that you always fail no matter what you do, and that you’ve been wasting time in your life, what are you going to do if you use food for comfort? You will eat, of course! This will keep you stuck in the cycle of feeling bad about yourself because then you will have the problem of overweight to deal with, something else to feel bad about!
Instead, if you changed those thoughts to: I deserve good in my life, it doesn’t matter how many times I’ve failed in the past, what matters is that I don’t give up, and everything that I’ve experienced in my life has had value because it’s made me the person I am today (there is no one else like me!), wouldn’t you be feeling much better about yourself? Therefore, you wouldn’t need as much comfort, and you wouldn’t need to use food for that comfort!
These would be starter thoughts to begin with, and then you could move on to thinking of yourself as a thin person. It really depends on what you are thinking today, and from where you are starting. If you generally think very well of yourself, and it’s only in the area of exercise that you are having a problem with follow-through, then you’d want to discover what you are thinking about the topic. Do you tell yourself you don’t have enough time, or do you feel like someone else is telling you to do it, so you’re rebelling?
Change your thoughts and you’ll change your life. You truly are what you think about, so why not invest in some good, healthy, fit-bodied thoughts!
You Are What You Think
©2006 by Max SteingartWhatever you plant in your subconscious mind
and nourish every day with conviction and emotion
will one day become a reality.Constant repetition carries conviction.
Repeat something often enough and it will start to become you.
A change in what you tell yourself
will result in a change in your behavior.What you impress upon your mind,
you’ll inevitably become.
Self suggestion will make you master of yourself.
I am confused as I do see and understand you’re mixing two different thoughts, Thoughts of eating with work. Why would a person eat more if he feels that he is a failure in life ?
sedentary lifestyle really bad, but I have to do that. I’m a internet user.
@prize, hi, that’s a good question, thanks for your comments!
If you are an emotional eater, you eat when you feel bad, sad, or even bored or happy. Food becomes an outlet for emotions instead of hunger. So, if you eat when you feel bad, then the better you can feel about yourself, the less you would be abusing food, and eating when not hungry. That is, unless you also eat when not hungry even if you are happy.
Eating for any other reason besides hungry usually leads to weight gain, which then leads to feeling even worse about yourself. It can turn into a cycle, but it can definitely be broken. A great way to do so is to start with changing your thoughts, which will change your emotions. 😉
@organ, thanks for your comment, although I have to disagree!
I’m also an internet/PC user, and I believe that for those of us who spend most of our day sitting and working at a computer all day must make a point to get up, walk around, and schedule time for our workouts. Otherwise your body can get cramped up and lose flexibility, to name only 2 downfalls to remaining sedentary. 😉