Sunday, 01 November 2009

• Can You "Think Yourself Thin"?

  

  I was an overweight child who grew into an obese adult. Although I started dieting at 12 years old, I ended up weighing 306 lbs about 11 years later. I could always diet the weight off but it always came back, and I usually ended up weighing even more than when the diet had started. This constant yo-yo'ing with my weight not only hurt me physically, it also wreaked havoc with me emotionally, leaving me feeling helpless, empty and full of self-hatred. But other than dieting, I didn't know what else to do.

  I was persistent and determined though. My desire to live life at a healthy weight kept me to looking for answers, and eventually I understood that my overeating and the weight were just symptoms of the problem and not the problem itself.

  I learned about the mind-body connection and how it relates to weight, and that the issue was with my mind and my thinking, rather than with my body or my stomach. I realized that I had never been able to "fix" my weight problem because I had been focusing on the wrong things. So instead of fixating on the food, I switched my focus to my brain and my thoughts; my thoughts about myself, about my body, even about other people who were slim, and I made some amazing discoveries.

  I learned that I didn't like myself very much, and in fact, hated my body and blamed it for all the problems in my life. I learned that I resented other people who were slim because they got to wear clothes and do activities that I couldn't. I saw I had a lot of very negative energy and thinking going on that weren't benefitting me at all, in fact they were harming me greatly, even ways above and beyond my weight. And by listening to other overweight people, I also learned that these ways of thinking are very common amongst people with weight issues.

  So I set out to change the way I thought, and while this wasn't easy, it wasn't nearly as hard as dieting and depriving myself had been. I put up sticky-notes all over the house to remind myself of my new ways of thinking. For instance, on every mirror in the house, I put up a little note that reminded me to focus on the positive things I saw in the mirror, rather than on the negative.

  I even developed a little mantra I would repeat over and over in my head that went like this: I am a healthy-weighted woman who loves eating well and exercising. I repeated this mantra so often that eventually I brainwashed myself into believing that this was true. And you know what? After a while the words actually became true, as I became someone who really did enjoy eating good quality, healthy foods and moving my body. You know what happens to people who eat well and move on a regular basis? They easily achieve or maintain a healthy body weight.

  And I am now one of those people! I managed to shed 135 lbs which I've kept off for over 6 years now. I never diet anymore, and I really do eat what I want, when I want. I will admit that what I want has changed dramatically, but I never feel deprived anymore. I have normalized my relationship with food.

  I wish someone had pointed out the error of my ways with dieting much sooner. I could have saved myself years of torture!

  The biggest single thing I've learned is an equation about life that goes like this: Thoughts create Feelings. Feelings create Actions. Actions create Results. Trying to manage weight by dealing only with the food doesn't work because it doesn't take into account the first part of this equation, it jumps into the middle dealing only with the actions.

  To truly get a handle on weight (or any area of your life you're dissatisfied with) you must dig deeper and uncover the (often hidden) thoughts that leave you feeling a certain way, which then causes you to act a certain way.

  It was my thoughts about myself and my body which left me feeling helpless and unworthy, which led me to eating for solace. By addressing the fundamental reasons behind my desire to overeat, the desire disappeared, and along with it, 135 lbs of excess weight! I literally "thought myself thin" and it has worked so much more effectively than any diet ever could. And while I do wish I had learned all this earlier, I am eternally grateful that I did learn it at all. I've lived an obese life, and now I'm living a healthy life, and I have to tell you, there's no comparison!
  

  Have you tried "thinking yourself thin"? Have you ever heard of this concept before?

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