On losing weight

I have been for quite sometime now reading Jack Canfield's book The Success Principles. There is a lot of good advice in the book, and so I try to chew on it, and truly let it sink in.
The chapter I just read had some interesting things about weight loss and health, and in a way that I have never approached it. He is talking about our tendency to criticize ourselves so harshly, and he explains that criticism comes from love, but because we are broken humans we don't know how to criticize in love, and in a way that is beneficial. We always stop at the anger part of criticism and don't carry out all of the steps necessary to make it worthwhile.

The 4 steps he states are anger, fear, requests, and love....so when criticizing yourself about excess weight, the self talk should go something like this....

Stage 1...anger....I am angry at you for not taking better care of your body. You are such a lazy slob! You eat too much. You don't have self discipline!

That is where most of us stop...he recommends moving forward to stage 2

fear.... If you don't change I am afraid you are going to keep gaining weight until you are facing a real heath risk. I am afraid your cholesterol is going to get so high that you might have a heart attack. I'm afraid that you could become diabetic. I'm afraid you are enver going to change and then you are going to die young and never really live out your destiny. If you keep this up you will never fulfill your dreams.

stage 3....requests....I want you to join a health club and go at least 3 times a week. I want you to go for a 20 minute walk the other four days. I want you to cut one hour of television and commit to exercise. I want you to stop eating fried foods and start eating fresh fruits and vegetables. I want you to stop drinking soda and drink water.

stage 4....love....I love you. I want you to be around for a long time. I want you to have wonderful relationships. you deserve to look good in your clothes and to feel good about yourself. you deserve to have your dreams come true. I want you to feel alive and energetic instead of tired and lethargic. you deserve to live life fully and enjoy every moment of it. you deserve to be happy.

anyway....I never talk to myself in a positive way. i don't think many of us here do...I think that we don't believe we deserve things...and I am hoping that maybe we can help each other to start to be more positive toward ourselves.

I don't know if it makes you think, but it did me, so I thought I would share.

Very good thoughts, Angie.

Thanks for sharing, Angie. It comes at a critical time for me. I have been completely out of control lately with the stress I am under.

I want to think on these things more. And move toward a more positive handling of my weight loss (and other areas, too).

Interestingly, when you say we don't believe we deserve things, I agree and it made me think of that bumper sticker about gun control..."If guns are outlawed, then only outlaws will have them." I think, when we don't feel we deserve things, we begin to snatch things like outlaws. Then, once we are in the mode of snatching, we feel we should snatch more while we can. You know? Maybe if we feel we deserve some things, we might eat them with more moderation?

JamesWilliams wrote:Very good thoughts, Angie.

I wish I could take credit....I really do like this book, he has a lot of very good advice....Dean Cox gave me the book!

So, I am doing this youtube yoga and I usually skip any of the videos that seem "spiritual" or weird and just do the exercise ones. But, in one of the exercise ones, the lady talks briefly about how we have to look into WHY we eat what we eat in addition to exercising to lose weight. In that part, she says something like, "if you know you're not hungry but you feel hungry, just let yourself BE with whatever it is that is making you want food. Whatever it is inside, just let yourself be that rather than go and eat." Now, to some degree, it is kind of out-there, weirdo yoga stuff--BEING one with _______. But, on the other hand, it kind of made sense to me. When I am anxious, why not just be anxious and work that out on it's own rather than turning to food too and having to feel guilty and bad about myself on top of anxious? Even if I am feeling legitimately hungry, I know I am far from starving, so why not allow myself to feel hunger and possibly learn something from the experience?

I don't know if I am fully communicating the thought, but it kind of took me by surprise at how much sense it made. I was thinking, "what's so bad about feeling hungry occasionally that I am always trying to figure out how to avoid it and killing myself in the process?!"

I think that is a great thought....

I know a lot of people who won't do yoga because of the spiritual stuff, but I think it is kind of like ob Bell in VE talking about how truth is everywhere and you have to find it...

God is Spiritual, and Spiritualists might not have it all right, but then, neither do other religions....so you take what you can from things.

That idea is really fantastic, I think I am just sitting in fear that I will never lose weight, and will always be this way.

Well, I don't watch any of her spiritual videos because I really don't want to expose myself to it. There is definitely truth everywhere, but there is something to be said for knowing what is good to think about and what is not. Their point in it is to relax, and I wouldn't do that while listening. I would be judging what is being said and trying to decipher truth and lies. So, I can go to where I know there is ALL truth if I need peace and relaxation. And that is Scripture and God himself. I kind of have an attitude toward new age thinking because it is able to, in some ways, mask itself so that its followers think they are following the same God of Christianity when in reality, they aren't. It can be deceptive, which is ironic because that is how people feel about Christianity when in reality, Christianity lays down a firm line of truth. It is just Christians themselves that end up being deceptive--and the religions they create to access Christianity.

But, anyway, yeah, I have been trying to let myself be hungry and see what is actually causing it. Because, it isn't actual hunger. I eat way too much to ever really be hungry!

it think it will surely help you in your beginnings