Welcome to our Blog

Do you sabotage your own success through your negative thoughts and emotions? 

In previous blogs I have explained why following diets, trying to lose weight and using weight as a measurement can be counter-productive in achieving your goal of losing weight. Today I am going to focus on self-sabotage and how and why you might be preventing yourself from achieving your weight loss goals.

There are 2 parts to the human mind and we don’t pay enough attention or perhaps fully understand how each part works and how they interact with each other. What I mean by the 2 parts is the conscious part and the subconscious (sometimes referred to as the unconscious)

Your conscious mind is the thinking rational part that is good at analysing and logical reasoning. The conscious mind is limited in that it can only process a limited amount of information at any one time. Whereas the subconscious part of the mind is responsible for data storage in the form of memory (storing possibly thousands or even millions of bits of information) It also manages the functioning of the body’s systems which means that you can breathe and walk and carry out a multitude of tasks without having to think about what you are doing.

Another responsibility of your subconscious mind is your emotional state. You don’t consciously decide to be angry, sad or frightened, it just happens as a reaction to something that you see, hear or feel. For example, you might be feeling sad and have the urge/craving for sugar that leads you to seek out the bar of chocolate in your cupboard even though your conscious mind is telling you that you are not hungry or that chocolate has very little nutritional value.

When there is a dispute between the rational part of the mind and the emotional part the emotional part usually gets its way. If you are trying to lose weight you might then feel guilty about eating the chocolate and then feel even worse and so eat some more and so it goes on.

Your subconscious mind is heavily influenced by your internal ‘self talk’ and your imagination. However, it doesn’t respond to a negative instruction, so if you tell yourself “I must not eat chocolate” your mind will focus on the word chocolate and if you enjoy chocolate the emotional brain will crave it even more as it seeks out the opportunity for pleasure.

With certain foods your imagination has an important role to play too. Whether or not chocolate tastes nice and makes you feel good momentarily; it is very likely that the message portrayed by the advertising industry repeatedly over many years that chocolate equals pleasure, by linking it to sex, means that you start to salivate before you start eating it.

So what can you do to resolve the link between emotions and eating and programme your subconscious mind to create the successful outcomes that you desire?

Firstly you need to find ways to change your emotional state before you eat anything so that you can sever the link between your emotions and food. For example you could use your imagination in a positive way by visualising how you will look and feel when you have achieved your desired size and shape.

Secondly you need to remember to eat consciously, mindfully and slowly and not allow yourself to be distracted by watching TV or browsing the internet whilst you are eating.

To find out how Neil succeeded in his goal of becoming slimmer after his weight ballooned to almost 30 stone read here!

Why trying to lose weight is self-defeating and often counter- productive! 

In my last blog I explained why dieting is counter-productive and often results in weight gain in the long-term. I believe that using weight as a measurement can also be counter-productive. As a society we seem to be obsessed about measuring our happiness on the number shown on our bathroom scales in the mornings.

Are you obsessed with jumping on the scales every day and do you base your level of happiness on what those scales tell you? I know some very heavy people who also happen to be extremely fit and healthy because most of their weight is comprised of muscle and very little fat. For example, I can think of a lot of athletes such as Rugby players and shot put and discus throwers who would fit into this category.

Someone recently said to me that she weighs 11.5 stone and her target is 10.75 stone. She also made the comment that her body seems happy at 11.5 because it always seems to end up at that weight yet she is unhappy at being over 11 stone. This appears to be a psychological barrier and probably would not be an issue if she did not weigh herself. I also know someone who has always associated happiness with being thin and unhappiness with being overweight. This belief was instilled in her from early childhood by her father!

The scales can be demoralising at times. Have you ever experienced being on a diet for a week, say, and exercised more rigorously than ever before and then stepped on the scales with the expectation of weight loss; only to discover no change or even a slight increase in weight. You may have changed shape as a result of a reduction in fat and increase in muscle but this success won’t be recognised by the scales. The likelihood is that you may give up on the exercise and healthy eating as a result as you are thinking “what’s the point.”

I don’t possess any scales and only ever get weighed when I visit my local GP practice which, thankfully, is a rare occurrence. You can keep a check on your body by looking in the mirror and noticing changes in the way your clothes fit and if you need some form of measurement maybe your clothes size and/or a tape measure might be more appropriate.

The words we use and our interpretation and meaning we identify with those words can have a profound effect on our lives. I know someone who has an aversion to exercise because he always associates exercise with his school days when he was humiliated and bullied because he wasn’t very good at sports.

I would suggest that very few people would have a positive connection with the word LOSE. For example I am a competitive sportsman (possibly because it was the only thing that I excelled at school). In sport your aim is to try to win you don’t try and lose.

Generally, in life, you take steps to avoid losing anything and you were taught to do this from an early age and if you lose anything you then try and find it. This kind of thinking becomes ‘hard wired’ by the time we are adults. So it must be a source of confusion to the subconscious mind when you keep on trying to lose weight. In this context the opposite of losing is gaining, which is perhaps what makes gaining weight easier to do than losing it.

As the focus on losing weight is part of the problem I suggest that you change the emphasis towards what you are going to gain as a result of becoming slimmer. These benefits might include feeling more confident, having increased levels of self-esteem, having more energy and therefore achieving more, living longer and having more choice of clothes to wear etc.

Finally, throw those scales away!!!