During the festive season, many of us are nervously dieting, counting carbs, and maybe even starving. Why not break free from the dieting prison and do what researchers have been telling us for years; use your mind to improve your waist-line and overall body health.
Program Your Mind
It sounds great, but is there solid scientific evidence that our minds can help? Tom Venuto, author of the Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle, details that scientists have even identified specific parts of the brain, such as the reticular activating system (RAS). “The RAS is activated by ‘programming’ goals into our sub-conscious minds,” he says, and our sub-conscious mind is the ‘power center’ and this is the mechanism that explains why goal setting and positive thinking are now being accepted as scientific methods for change.
How to Do it
- Constantly visualize yourself fitting into that dress, use self-affirming dialogue to make yourself believe that you truly are getting thin, you are above food and your cravings, and it’s not bad to eat a piece of cake.
- It’s you who has the power to control your weight. What really happens is positive thinking and related methods quite literally re-program your brain, which in turn creates new behaviors that move you physically toward whatever you have been thinking about and focusing on.
- Become aware of undermining thoughts so you can replace them with helpful ones.
Dealing with Hunger Pangs
- Hunger is normal and once you learn to tolerate craving and separate it from true hunger, you’ll be free from being a slave to it.
- Plan what you’re going to eat the next day, and follow your plan to the tee. This sounds rigid, but you’re building self-control.
- You can begin the positive mental reprogramming process by writing down your goals, changing your internal dialogue, and taking a few minutes to relax, quiet your mind, and perform a session of visualization every day.
- If repeated, these methods will begin to program the non-conscious portion of the mind, which is the same part of the mind that controls your heart beat, digestion, and new cell production.
