You can lose more weight each week and enjoy a greater degree of success by adding the tool of Mental Rehearsal to your toolbox. Since the mind and body are one system, your mind can help you to prepare your body for the actual situation in which you want to behave or act in a certain way. This is a technique that is practiced by all top performers in every field. Just like an athlete prepares for an olympic event or a public speaker prepares for a presentation, you can apply these principles to weight control.
The first step is to choose a specific situation where you want to respond in a more resourceful way. It is said that the mind can not tell the difference between a vividly imagined thought and reality.
The purposoe of this is to be able to see yourself in a more resourceful way. Let's take the situation of celebrating a holiday with extended family. The following strategy is what I have used in the past with great success. I have broken it up into 2 parts, the first part is what you can physically do to prepare for the event, the next is to mentally prepare using the Mental Rehearsal. I also suggest that you combine this NLP Process with the Emotional Freedom Technique that follows this post for maximum impact.
Using the combination of all these methods, you will notice that you are in control of the situation, feel strong and make good choices. Even if you decide to splurge a bit, you will do it from a point of choice, not unconscious behavior. This process makes you conscious of what you are doing.
1. Focus on what you'll wear. Visualize what you want to see yourself wearing that day, make sure that you wear something that reminds you of your body. The object of doing this is actually two fold. First it is to focus on something other than what you are going to eat. When you arrive at a get together looking and feeling great, whatever your weight, you will arrive with more resources as opposed to looking like you just threw something together. The second reason is to make you conscious of what you are eating by being able to create a physical reminder for yourself to limit your food intake by wearing something with a tighter waist.
2. Get a bit more exercise throughout the week to balance out this meal. Don't go nuts. Perhaps add another 10 minutes of activity each day. The purpose of doing this is just to keep you mentally in check and make you accountable to your choices. By already investing extra time and more activity, you'll be less likely to overeat to the point of misery.
3. Eat a small snack to keep your hunger under control. I tend to favor low calorie comfort foods, like a bowl of soup another thing that really works well for me is a packet of instant oatmeal, I even travel with it and enjoy that on a plane along with a cup of peppermint tea. It reminds me of being in my Nana's (Grandma's) kitchen when I was a ittle girl. For that very same reason, I eat it often to give me that sense of self nurtuing that my inner child craves.
Your choice is probably different from mine but I am recommending that you find a low calorie substitute to give you a sense of being nurtured. It could be drinking broth, eating a bowl of soup, eating a vegetable stew, a couple of slices of toast with some jelly or some other thing that will fill a deeper need inside of you, as opposed to just feeding your physical hunger. Think about what you eat when you want to nurture youself when you are sick and plan to eat that slowly and consciously.
The purpose of doing that is to be able to satisfy that part of you that suffers from feelings of deprivation. It's that part of your psyche that will reach out for food and seek that out as comfort and lose control because of feeling so deprived. This way you already begin to put in place an anchor of self love and treating yourself with respect and honor. By eating something that reminds you of being loved and safe, you will fill a deeper hunger and you will arrive at the get together ready to engage with people as opposed to seeing out food for comfort.
The following is the actual strategy for Mental Rehearsal.
1. Run a movie of the event in your mind Imagine seeing yourself watching a movie of this event. Watch the image of yourself on the screen as you arrive at your destination, see the image of yourself and notice what you do when you feel satisfied after enjoying a special nurturing snack that reminds you of a time when you were comforted. Notice what evidence there is around you showing that you are feeling secure and happy, connected to your goals and seeing the bigger picture of how you respond to this event as a thinner person. Continue to watch the movie and notice yourself greeting people, and hearing yourself saying things that you might want to say, focus on looking for the details around you, visualize seeing yourself making wise choices, having fun, enjoying everyone's company, laughing and being in control, then going home and being satisfied and continuing the rest of the evening feeling fully satisfied and in control and acknowledging yourself for a job well done and seeing yourself waking up the next day feeling proud and ready to begin your day feeling great and strong.
2. After you finish watching the movie, step into it, and rehearse your response in your imagination. Now see what you will see from your own eyes and hear what you will hear, and tune into your body and notice the sensations of how you feel and notice what you are doing and how you are making choices and what beliefs are driving those choices.
I think of this process like walking in the snow. It is so much easier to tread on a spot where you already see a footprint. This is what you are doing, you are setting down footrprints in your mind and by rehearsing the events in your imagination, you've already tread on that spot, in your mind, and achieved the goal. You have already accomplished it. My nana always used to say, "Once begun, half done." Remember to follow this technique up with the next post describing how to use EFT with Mental Rehearsal for maximum impact. Have fun!
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2006 Andrea Amador
Andrea Amador, The Juicy Woman, inspires women to live
juicy.
Find out more about her new Get The Fat Out Of Your Head
ecourse by visit her website. When you are working with
Andrea, be prepared to experience quantum change in your
life and get ready to rock your world. How much joy can you
stand? Call 845-371-0115 and visit
http://www.thejuicywoman.com