Do you believe that you can lose weight? Or do you find yourself coming up with all sort of reasons why you can't? I've noticed that the people I help to lose weight, who really believe they can do it, are the most successful.
One of the biggest challenges in losing weight is whether you really believe you can do it. The power of belief is
strong and without it, weight loss isn't likely to happen. When you really believe you can lose weight, your mind
looks at what you need to do to make this happen.
When you don't believe you can do it, your mind looks for all the reasons why not and sticks there. There are many
reasons why people feel they can't lose weight and it often comes down to a lack of confidence in their ability. They
feel that deep down they're not worthy of losing weight. Their self-esteem is low.
Different things drive different people to the stage where they really believe they can lose weight. For some people,
this just seems to happen and they wake up one day knowing they can do it. Usually something has happened beforehand,
but on this particular day, they decide "this is it".
Many people who want to lose weight, don't feel they have this belief they can do it. I suggest that this belief is
there but it's been buried under everything else. Your belief that you can lose weight can be encouraged, by
someone such as a coach or you can choose to take steps towards drawing this out of yourself.
When I first started talking with one of my clients, she said she didn't feel she could lose weight, although she
really wanted to. We had met face to face and her posture radiated defeat - rounded shoulders, head down,
not looking confident.
We spent about an hour talking and I was coaching her to show her she could lose weight. At the end of the hour
session, the physical change in her was amazing. She sat up taller, was more confident and showed a real air of
"I can do this".
What did we do and what does it take to have this belief? Part of the reason people believe they can't do something
is the references they draw on whenever they think of losing weight.
The references can be negative thoughts such as "I can never stick to a diet", "I'll never enjoy exercising",
"and I can't give up eating chips, chocolate, sweets." Instead of looking at what this client hadn't been able
to do in the past to lose weight, I asked her to start telling me about the successes she'd had previously.
I reminded her that I'm looking for all successes, even the small ones. At first she found it difficult to recall instances of success in losing weight and becoming fitter. Slowly, they began to emerge and the
more she said, the more she was able to remember them and share them with me.
Her face started to light up as she realised there had been many times when she'd done things to lose weight.
I suggest you write down a list of all your past successes to build up an attitude of "I can do it". You can do this on your own, or by working with a coach
to encourage you. Or you can find someone else who wants to adopt the same "I can" attitude and make a game of listing your successes.
You say out loud one success; write it down and then your friend does the same. The synergy created when more than one person does this is amazing and will
really lift your spirits.
I encourage you to keep your list of "I can's", so you can add to it on a regular basis and use it as a reminder in the future, to maintain your "I can" attitude.
What I want is for you to feel you can do whatever it is you set your mind to.
