Whether you want to lose weight, build muscle or just improve your cardiovascular health, the mind plays a huge role. The mind gets and keeps you motivated, it develops those good habits and it lets you see your goal before you achieve it. I believe the biggest reason for people failing to achieve their health and fitness goals is down to lack of knowledge of how the mind works. You either control the mind or it controls you!
The mind hates change. It has a world view which has been built up throughout your life. It knows pigs don't fly and money does not grow on trees. If you were to see a flying pig or a money tree, your mind would reject it instantly. Your mind would be racing to try and find a logical reason to justify why this can't be real, so it fits into its world view. That's why when we try to make a change our mind try's to resist it. Our habits are formed by our past experiences, family and friends. If you understand how this works then you can beat it! To change your bad habits you must replace them with good habits. How do you change a habit? You must repeat the new habit 30 times, so around a month for it to become a new habit. Your new habit will then be formed, replacing the old one.
Let me give you an example. I developed the habit of having porridge oats with kiwi fruit for my breakfast every morning but I wanted to add blueberries as well. To be honest I was not too keen on blueberries to start with but they have so many health benefits, I wanted to include them. It was hard at first to get used to eating them as part of my breakfast routine. I knew it would be at first. I knew if I did this for the full 30 days it would become a habit. After the 30 days it was formed as a habit. I now have blueberries every day with my porridge!
Our daily thoughts about our self, define who we become. They make up our self-image. What is a self-image? The self-image is your view of yourself. The person who you are and the person you think others think you are. You cannot outperform your self- image. If you don't think you can do something, I can guarantee you won't do it. If you don't think you are worthy of something you won't get it or keep it.
If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right. - Henry Ford
The good news is we can change our self-image. You need to spend about 5-10 minutes twice a day to picture how you want to be. Picture yourself with bigger arms, a six pack or a slimmer you. You have to feel it. Feel the emotion and the great feeling it gives you. You must do this daily. You need to train your mind daily, just like a sportsman would practice his sport daily. Every top sports person visualizes how they will perform. They see themselves winning and at their best. If you do this for just one day you will see a difference for just that day. If you do it every day you will see the difference for the rest of your life.
Most people see an old friend or a family member they have not seen in a while. The friend or family member say's your looking really well or they may say you have put weight on. The majority of people will take the compliment of looking well and feel good for a short while and forget about it. The very same people will take in the negative comment about putting on weight and hold on to that image. They spend the rest of the day feeling down. Looking in the mirror seeing themselves larger than they really are. They may head to the kitchen and grab some junk food to make themselves feel better because they can only picture themselves as being overweight so what is the point. If that one person thinks so then I must be. Right? THIS IS TOTALLY THE WRONG THINKING!
You must hold the picture of yourself with that body you desire. Remember you are doing this twice a day. When you look into the mirror see that new body you want. This will make you feel good. Hold on to that feeling throughout the day. That feeling will keep you on track. Don't allow any negative thoughts about your body enter your mind. If someone makes a negative comment just accept that it is only there view. Everyone one has different views. If you asked a hundred people there favourite food. Would they all say the same thing? No they wouldn't. So just accept that you will always get negative comments but you don't have to accept them! As soon as you feel yourself having a negative thought, think back to your image of that body you desire. This will make you feel good about yourself again. Once you build this momentum and learn to eradicate negative thoughts about your body, nothing will stop you!
You will feel more confident, you will feel in control. This thinking will smash through any of the training or nutrition obstacles you may come across. If you don't control your thoughts, the nutrition and training will always breakdown when those negative thoughts pop up and you hold on to them. So remember, "You Become What You Think About."
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