“Our beliefs control our bodies, our minds, and thus our lives…”
― Bruce H. Lipton
Do you believe that life is hard? That losing weight is hard? That being healthy is hard? That keeping weight off is hard? That as you age, you start to fall apart? That your family line, trauma or genetics have doomed you to a life of illness, addiction or constant struggle?
Take a look at the state of your body and life right now.
Are you satisfied with your current reality? Are you happy with the results you’ve thus-far created for yourself?
If the answer is no (meaning you would prefer something better), then you have to go back to the beliefs you hold about these areas of your body and life.
My beliefs about my weight struggles go far back into childhood, but they really became MAJORLY distorted as an adult when I was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s (autoimmune hypothyroid disease).
Believe it or not (pun intended :)), the MORE I researched and grew in my scientific education around hormones, weight loss, physiology and pathology, the MORE I identified with my illness – and the worse my health became.
My diet, exercise and weight started to take-up a HUGE chunk of my headspace.
Controlling my weight became my #1 desire and focus.
I believed I’d be happy if I could just achieve and maintain my ideal weight…and I also believed that this would require discipline, control and perfection for life (which is draining, not fun and not sustainable).
So my focus was all on the external “DO-ing”…
… as I completely ignored my internal “BE-ing”…
I carried beliefs about my body, my thyroid, my genetics, my age and what it would take to stay in the ideal zone. These beliefs were not serving me at all.
PSA: This is EXACTLY where the gazillion $$$ healthcare, weight loss and fitness industry wanted me – and it’s where it wants you too.
The approach I was taking (and that most people take) is completely backwards.
You must understand and align your beliefs with the results you desire FIRST.
And here’s the key:
Your desired results need to be VERY clear and specific.
Let’s say you want to lose 20 pounds for the summer (in 3 months) and not regain it EVER.
That’s a perfectly fine goal to have.
But here’s where we miss the mark. It’s really important to:
- Understand WHY this is important to you at a DEEP level vs. the superficial level (for example, because of old internal programming, or getting back to your high school weight or jeans size or some warped societal standard).
- Be VERY clear HOW you want to be/feel/do as you lose it (and keep it off)
- especially around your mindset – meaning how you THINK & FEEL about your process
- the level of ease or control you can reasonably sustain around the scale, eating, drinking and exercise
- how you’re living, socializing and experiencing life during this change process
- Decide on the ideal approach you will take both EXTERNALLY and INTERNALLY
- with your diet and exercise
- and most importantly with managing your mind (which may be all over the place at times – feeling pressure, bored, restless, deprived, deserving, impatient, doubtful, frustrated, etc..).
- Believe beyond any doubt that this goal is💯 possible for you.
I had a client who was determined to lose the extra 40 pounds she gained during a super challenging time in her life. She was desperate to lose this weight because how she felt and looked just wasn’t matching who she really was on the inside (plus her doctor was concerned about her numbers and was starting to suggest medications).
Before she began working with me, about 4 months prior, she had started off really strong following a diet and exercise approach that seemed to work for her body and life. She lost close to a third of the weight she wanted to lose.
YAY!😁 That’s great! ✅
But a couple months passed and her progress started to wane. She started to get confused and then frustrated with her lack of progress. This was followed by feelings of boredom and deprivation.
One week, she’d clamp down with even more restrictions and harder workouts. The next week, she’d throw up her hands and eat the foods she’d been denying herself (because, “Why bother! Nothing’s working anymore anyway.”😖)
What was worse though was:
She started to lose hope.
Which meant that she didn’t trust her body or the process. Which meant she no longer believed she could get to where she wanted to be (and stay there).
And it was that lack of belief that killed this diet and halted her progress. It actually wasn’t the diet that stopped working. It wasn’t her body. It was her mind – her beliefs weakened along the way. They shifted away from her desired results.
But don’t worry, this ended well…
As we started to address her inner world, the outer stuff she did held more flow and ease. She stepped back into belief, even when the scale plateaued (which is often part of the weight loss adaptation process).
She spent most of her focus on managing her mind – less on controlling her food. Checking in everyday with herself and how she felt about her process and progress. She weeded out thorny thoughts.
She also adjusted her diet and lifestyle here and there to accommodate her healing body as she went, but it didn’t take much.
So as you look at your life – body, work, money, relationships, etc…, if you find an area you’re not completely satisfied with, start to identify your beliefs around them.
Do those beliefs match (or align) so that it’s even possible to create the results you desire in that area of your life?
If not, it’s time to let them go and shift into better beliefs.
The great news is, beliefs are expansive and can shift with your choice in perception – they don’t have to be fixed, but just be aware that…
“human beings have a great capacity for sticking to false beliefs with great passion and tenacity,”
― Bruce H. Lipton
