Forget about losing weight

You heard me - forget about losing weight. Let me explain where I am coming from.

I just watched the national broadcast of Beyond The Secret - and Bob Proctor said something that really resonated with me. He said that we are programmed to find things we lose. Think about it - if you lose your keys, you look until you find them. If you lose something, you feel lost until you find it. So when we focus on losing weight, human nature is to find it again - and most of us have been successful at losing weight and then finding it again and again - and sometimes we find more than we lost to begin with.

So how about releasing the weight instead? That's what Bob recommended. Don't lose it - let go of it. Discard it. If you really don't want it, then let it go. Now, I realize it's not as simple as saying to yourself "I hereby release the extra fat on my body". But what if you changed your mindset? What if you focused on letting go of what you don't want and uncovering what you do want? Take off that blanket of excess fat and let the thin person inside you out.

When I think about it, the basic principles of the Law of Attraction and what a lot of these speakers and books talk about in terms of success are what led me to succeed this time when I had failed so many times before. My focus has been on being thin - not on losing weight. I hang around people who are thin. My best friend is one of those skinny people I used to hate. She's also a yoga instructor and personal trainer - and spending time with her has helped me tremendously. It also helps that the person I live with (my dear hubby) is also very fit and concerned with his health.

I've spent the last several months focused on being healthy, feeling good about myself, and being skinny. I've put up pictures to make me think about being thin. I've talked to thin people, I've been around them. I've even set passwords to "skinny" and other words that help me focus on what I want.

So much of our energy is focused on what we don't want that we often get exactly what we don't want - but if we really focus our energy on what we DO want, wouldn't that feel better? Think about something you have accomplished in your life that you really wanted. How did you get there? Chances are you focused on what you wanted. You knew why you wanted it. You knew how it would feel when you got there. You took action because it was what you wanted, and that action felt good because it was leading you to your goal. You made choices that were in the direction of your goal, and even if it was a sacrifice it was worth it because it was taking you toward your goal. You did what it took because you were working toward something.

Isn't it easier to work toward something than to work against it? I really think that's why it has worked for me this time. Rather than focusing on what I didn't like, I focused on what I wanted to be like. I focused on feeling good as much as I did on looking good.

So here's my challenge to you: Forget about losing weight. Instead, focus on being thin, healthy, skinny, or whatever it is.
1. Think of a word or phrase that describes what you want to be and put it where you can see it every day. Write it on the fridge, in your car, make it your desktop wallpaper, your Blackberry password. Do whatever you can to keep that goal in your mind.
2. List on paper your reasons for wanting to be that way. This is important. If you don't have reasons, then you won't have motivation. I did that, and I will share that list of reasons in a later post. Think of all the little reasons, no matter how silly. If it means borrowing your best friend or sister's clothes, or not being the fat chick in the bridal party, or not having to pay extra for that bridesmaid's dress, or being able to walk the dog or keep up with your kids, or even take the stairs at the office.
3. Believe that you can do this if you want to badly enough. There is a thin person inside you, and you have the power to bring that person out.
4. Make your choices. When someone offers you something that isn't on your program, your choice is whether that something fits into what you want. Is the ice cream more important to you than your reason for being thin? Probably not. If you just think of your reasons first and then make your choice, you will more likely make the right choice - and if you don't, you don't have to beat yourself up because you made a choice. (Having some cheesecake you can eat like the recipe posted here, or a choice that leads you toward your goal will also help.)

That's it! It really is that simple. It's a little more difficult in practice, but if you know what you want and WHY you want it, then it becomes so much easier to make those choices.

Now, go to it. All you have to lose, or release, is the old person you don't want to be so you can uncover that gorgeous skinny person inside who is just dying to slip into a slinky dress and go dancing!