Ingredient #3 and a very important ingredient is MENTAL TRAINING: Mindsets and Attitudes or bottom line, CHOICES! I’ve learned when you put good stuff in your brain, good stuff comes out and the opposite is true as well. Garbage in-garbage out.
I’ve been involved in fat loss challenges since 2009. I followed the plan, did the nutrition part, the workouts and even the mental training part like they say athletes do. You know, visualize the body you want, see it as if you’ve already achieved it. Golfers do this. They visualize every shot before they take it, as well as basketball players before they shoot a hoop. It’s done all the time in sports.
But what I failed to do was “believe” that I could actually achieve what I wanted my body to look like. Now some people have unrealistic expectations of what they’d like to look like. For me, I wasn’t visualizing myself with a 20 something’s body. I knew what I had to work with. I chose a picture of a 45 year old silver medalist in the Olympics a few years back. I wanted a lean, strong and fit looking body like she has.
What I’ve struggled with most is the lower part of my anatomy. Off goes the chest long before the hips budge. I was complaining about this to a coach I was working with on-line and this is the advice I was given. “Whatever body issues you think you have start in your head. Change the way you think about yourself as of now. Create some positive affirmations to take the place of the negatives and keep repeating them until you believe them. Telling yourself that you are not genetically gifted and talking about problem areas and working for every ounce of muscle etc. is extremely counter-productive to your program and will really slow you down. You are who you are and have as much opportunity for change as anyone else. Believe that. You lose from the top down. It is a given with both men and women, not just you specifically. Be diligent, work hard, eat clean and please, please change the words you use to describe yourself. The more you talk the way you do, the more your subconscious obliges.
Now when I heard those words a light bulb went on. I finally understood that I needed to start being thankful for how far I have come and stop belittling myself. I was doing myself more harm than good in thinking and speaking negative things about myself. I needed to thank God for who He created me to be and give Him the credit for the ability and drive to do whatever He has called me to do.
The most powerful and life changing thing you can do is start saying the right things out loud to yourself. Say things like, “I am a child of God. I am chosen and loved. I am God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works. I am called. I am the bride of Christ and He adores me. I am the one He came to die for. I belong to Him. He rescued me out of the domain of darkness and transferred me into the Kingdom of His beloved Son. I am His. I am an honest, intelligent, organized, punctual, goal directed person. I am teachable, loyal and clearly understand God’s word. I am a self starter who is a disciplined, focused, dependable, persistent, positive thinker with great self-control, and am energetic and a diligent hard worker who appreciates the opportunities that God brings my way. I am thrifty with my resources and apply common sense to my daily tasks. I take honest pride in my competence and appearance, and am motivated to be and do my best so that my healthy self-image will remain on solid ground. These are the qualities which enable me to manage myself, help me be the wife, mother, grandmother and friend I need to be. I suggest you make your own “self-talk” cards and repeat them out loud in front of a mirror every day until you start believing them. If you don’t have these qualities yet, or think you’d be the biggest liar if you started saying these things about yourself, just look up Joel chapter 3 verse 10. “Let the weak say I am strong.” Believe me, when you say these things to yourself every day, you will change. You will start seeing yourself in a new, true light.
How do you look at life? Do you lack vision? When you catch a glimpse of your potential, and I believe this process will allow you to do that, that’s when passion is born. Passionate people get things done. God can work with passionate people. Just look at Saul before he became Paul. He was one passionate man. God just needed to direct him down the right road.
Dr. Joyce Brothers said, “You cannot consistently perform in a manner which is inconsistent with the way you see yourself.” She went on to say, “Success is a state of mind. If you want success, start thinking of yourself as a success.”
Mental Training works and is a key ingredient to your success.