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I wanted to share an article I received from him about our mindset and how it can play a huge part in our health accomplishments. I truly feel that our mindset can not only affect our eating, exercise, and health habits and accomplishments or lack there of, but it can truly affect every aspect of our lives. Read it and see where it takes you! Below is the article (I couldn't post the link because of the login requirement) Remember this is all written by Bill Phillips. It's long, but well worth the read!!
Well, off to run on the treadmill! Have a great Friday!
Kimarie
1) Know Why You're Making the Change
Why is losing weight and becoming healthier important to you? Yes, most all of us want to look a little better but beneath that, what are the real reasons for making the decision to transform your health? The deeper and more heartfelt your reasons, the better and more satisfying your results will be. Upon reflection, many parents of young children realize how vitally important it is for them to set a healthy example for their kids to follow. Children have a hard time hearing what parents say because what they do speaks so much louder. Another meaningful reason people often connect with when they do some soul searching is that even though they often put helping others as their first priority, they come to realize that unless they take good care of themselves, they’ll have a limited amount of energy and strength to give to others in the future. There are many good reasons to make the decision to change but until you find one that’s purposeful and heartfelt to you, you may have difficulty maintaining a healthy lifestyle for the long term. So please, know your reasons.
2) Decide Specifically Where You're Going
The human mind works very much like a global positioning system (GPS) in modern cars. When we give it detailed information on where we want to go, it works wonders to help us get there. Unfortunately, most people who are trying to lose weight and improve their health don’t get specific enough. “I want to be in better shape” isn’t enough information. That would be like telling a GPS in an automobile, “I want to go someplace nice.” For one person, the beach might be what they mean by someplace nice and for another it might be the mountains. So what we need to do is identify a crystal-clear, objective target. It also helps to decide exactly when we want to get there because this allows the mind to prioritize the task. Example: Within 3 months I will become 25 lbs lighter. Clarifying and writing down your goal is a vitally important step and will help set your mind in the right direction.
3) See Your Future Success, Now
Consider making a few minutes of quiet time each day to sit in stillness and hold an image in mind of how you want to be, how you want to look, and how you want to feel. Envision, with increasing clarity, what it’s like to experience life in your lean, strong, energetic body. As if you’re watching a short movie, see yourself in situations where you are making smart, healthy decisions; for example, at lunch at a café with friends, see yourself eating nutritious foods which nourish your energy and life. See yourself getting up early in the morning to exercise and not wasting time or procrastinating. This will help you shift your mindset so you begin to think today like the person you’re envisioning in the future. Remember, what you see and what you envision in your mind will become your future life—the physical manifestation is a secondary phenomenon. It all starts in the mind.
Consider making a few minutes of quiet time each day to sit in stillness and hold an image in mind of how you want to be, how you want to look, and how you want to feel. Envision, with increasing clarity, what it’s like to experience life in your lean, strong, energetic body. As if you’re watching a short movie, see yourself in situations where you are making smart, healthy decisions; for example, at lunch at a café with friends, see yourself eating nutritious foods which nourish your energy and life. See yourself getting up early in the morning to exercise and not wasting time or procrastinating. This will help you shift your mindset so you begin to think today like the person you’re envisioning in the future. Remember, what you see and what you envision in your mind will become your future life—the physical manifestation is a secondary phenomenon. It all starts in the mind.
4) Consciously Recreate Your Environment
What we surround ourselves with, we tend to become. This is especially true when it comes to the heart of our homes, the kitchen. When it’s filled with unhealthy, high-calorie foods it becomes a “temptation island” for those of us who have made the decision to become lighter and healthier. Since people are much more likely to do the right thing in the right environment one of the first things I recommend is what I call the Healthy Spaces Makeover. What you do is mindfully go through your kitchen, open all the cabinets, the refrigerator and freezer, and get rid of the high-calorie, low-nutrient foods that you might be tempted to eat during the week and replace them with healthy foods that contain the nutrients you need without the calories you don’t. This makes a world of difference so please give it a try.
5) See Progress as the Ultimate Reward
When we begin to make healthy and challenging changes in our lives the mind can sometimes begin to play a trick on us. What happens is that we can mistakenly allow our attention to focus on what we haven’t accomplished rather than what we have. For example, the woman who becomes 10 lbs lighter after 4 weeks of healthy eating and exercise who looks in the mirror and feels like a failure because she doesn’t look “perfect” yet. She fails to see that she’s truly making wonderful progress and as such, she feels discouraged, rather than motivated. The truth is that what most people imagine as perfection is an ideal that doesn’t exist. Trying to pursue it is like chasing the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow; whenever you go to where you think it is, it’s always somewhere else. What we need to do is shift our mindset so we see progress, not perfection, as the ultimate reward. When you do this, your motivation and energy will rise with every step you make in the right direction.
When we begin to make healthy and challenging changes in our lives the mind can sometimes begin to play a trick on us. What happens is that we can mistakenly allow our attention to focus on what we haven’t accomplished rather than what we have. For example, the woman who becomes 10 lbs lighter after 4 weeks of healthy eating and exercise who looks in the mirror and feels like a failure because she doesn’t look “perfect” yet. She fails to see that she’s truly making wonderful progress and as such, she feels discouraged, rather than motivated. The truth is that what most people imagine as perfection is an ideal that doesn’t exist. Trying to pursue it is like chasing the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow; whenever you go to where you think it is, it’s always somewhere else. What we need to do is shift our mindset so we see progress, not perfection, as the ultimate reward. When you do this, your motivation and energy will rise with every step you make in the right direction.
6) Speak Mindfully and Positively
The words we say to others and ourselves directly influence our mindset, our health, and our actions for better or worse every single day. Positive, empowering language has been shown in scientific studies to improve scores on aptitude tests, boost physical performance, strengthen the immune system, and even help us develop healthy eating habits. You can harness the power of words and put them to work in your own life by being more mindful about what you’re saying. Speak more often of what you can do, rather than what you can’t; be encouraging with yourself and others rather than critical; affirm that you are becoming healthier and lighter as well as how you’re transforming, improving and making good progress. The more you do, the more you will.
