Do you realize the main thing preventing you from losing weight is your limiting beliefs about it?  We are habitual humans on purpose. A habit is formed when we imagine something and create a thought.  Eventually, it becomes a set story pattern, a way of thinking that is stored in the memory bank of our brain.  It becomes our reality, a habitual way of thinking.  It’s not necessarily true, just true to our way of thinking.

How often do you ask yourself, is this thought really true?  Most people seldom revisit their belief system. Everything we think is just an opinion.  It’s what we’ve decided at any given moment to believe.  We are able to change our minds at any given moment; we just need to practice becoming more aware and open to considering other possibilities.

Food for example.  It’s lunchtime and your hungry.  One week ago, you started a diet someone recommended requiring you to restrict your carbohydrates in order to lose weight.  You have brought your lunch every day full of protein, vegetables, and good quality fat.  The office decides to order pizza.  That fragile new diet plan is not a solid habit yet.  What’s solid and stored as a belief is a habit of eating high carbohydrate foods such as pizza.  YUM- give me that. Will power is always limited.  HABITS rule.

I have super-simplified the inner workings of the brain and bodily functions. The point is this.  No matter how out of balance our system is operating, a very strong part of us wants to stay in the old familiar habit of eating exactly what we habitually like to eat.  It demands it in the form of cravings, shaky feelings, and flashes of past failures zipping automatically (a thought you must question) from our memory bank.  It’s reminding us of past history, this diet is too hard. Your body is simply sending signals of demanding more sugar to satisfy the dopamine or withdrawal.

“UGH,” you say.  “This is too much work, not fun, I hate this food and dieting never works for me.” Sound familiar?  Your brain is serving you self defeating limiting beliefs you keep repeating as false truths, so you will stop doing hard, unfamiliar new stuff. These thoughts are not true unless you decide they are.  You are feeding yourself questionable stories like a robot.  Losing weight today has nothing to do with your yesterday limiting beliefs.  It’s garbage in, garbage out.  Totally nonproductive. You are sabotaging your chances of losing weight.

We limit our ability to change our habits simply because we rely 90% or more of the time on memorized stories we created years ago that no longer serve us.  They literally limit our ability to change.

Deep down inside your mind, you have stored thoughts you created as stories believe to be true repeating them as fact.  All thoughts are just your opinion.  Repeat them enough times they become your belief system.   You create every single thing you believe.  Some research says 50% of everything we believe was created in our childhood.  Imagine turning over your checkbook or car to a five or even ten-year-old.

It’s not right or wrong if we think a certain way.  I’m just saying as an example, we eat what we eat because of what we have conditioned our brain and body to habitually want to eat.  The reason we overeat is another story for another blog.

Here’s the rub.  Our conscious self, the one that is trying to change our eating habits so we can lose weight is in conflict with our subconscious brain and body functions.  It’s an old habit versus a new desire.  Your old habits are going to win every time unless you start questioning your belief system-your thought story.

As a life coach specializing in weight loss, I have a really simple recipe you can teach yourself in order to change the way you think about losing weight.  This 4 step recipe works for all problems.  If you are ready for a lasting change in your life, such as reaching your desired goal weight.  If you are ready to lose weight for good, you need to give yourself the gift of coaching with me.  Change what you think-change what you weigh. It really is that simple.

Your Midlife and Beyond Certified Life Coach

Show Up * Think Different * Kick Ass * Be All In