Change Your Mind Change Your Body

Change Your Mind Change Your Body

One of the biggest differences I've found between people who are successful in losing weight and those that don't is the language the successful people use. Some of the most people I've met that have been able to lose weight and keep it off, don't use the term "lose weight." I've been told by more than a few people that even saying "I want to lose weight"is a type of self-fulfilling prophecy to gain it back. This might seem strange at first, it sure did to me, but I came around to their way of thinking. I was told that you use the terminology "lose"when you want to find something i.e. lost keys, lost children, etc. However no one wants to gain back the weight they worked so hard to get rid of in the first place! Imagine if just by just saying you want to lose 20 pounds and you do, but then you gain it back because subconsciously that language means to your brain, ""oh dear I must find that which I lost? Now I don't think weight loss is just that simple, but there have been a lot of studies that show the power of the brain in such circumstances, think of the phrase "mind over matter."

So what then do these successful skinnier people use instead of the proverbial "I want to lose weight?" Many replace that term with release weight, i.e. "I want to release 10 pounds." This simple statement on the surface looks very similar, but it is quite powerful to use language that doesn't have the same negative connotations connected to it as "losing weight"tends to have. This is especially true for chronic dieters and people that yo-yo up and down in weight. These people tend to lose weight, then gain it back, sometimes even more than they originally lost, then they lose it again, and their mind and body starts looking for it back. This can quickly turn into an endless cycle.

One simple and easy way to break the weight loss and gain cycle is to change your self talk. The first step could be as simple as changing your language around your goal. Instead of saying "I want to lose x pounds," try saying "I want to release x pounds." Just this one simple, easy to do step could get you off the weight loss and gain cycle you have been stuck on. Give it a try, it costs nothing.