NLP Can Help You Stick With Your Diet
by: Dianne R Maurer on Sat, 9 May 2009 at: 5:16 PM Go to: Previous Article Next Article
You already have everything within you that you need to achieve any goal you want. It's a bold statement I know, but it is the truth, it is just a question of believing it.
NLP is about programming your brain to do what you want it to do and altering unhelpful conditioned behavior in a conscious deliberate way. NLP focuses on a number of different areas but in this article we shall deal with Language, State Change, and Re-Framing.
Positive Self talk is an essential part of self motivation and success, conversely, negative self talk is the cause of many failures. The way you talk to yourself makes all the difference, by constantly feeding yourself negative thoughts and beliefs about your weight and your ability to lose weight you are literally hypnotizing yourself to believe that you will always be fat. Here's an example, "I never lose weight, I only have to look at a piece of cake and I put on 5lbs", this kind of self talk is literally programming your mind to believe that you will never lose weight and you put on weight easily. You can probably see that this is not a helpful mindset if it comes to dieting. An excellent book which covers this subject is Dr Maxwell Maltz's Psycho-Cybernetics, which is well worth a read.
It is essential to communicate with yourself using positive language and that language should be based in the present tense. You should be telling yourself that you are already at your ideal weight and that you enjoy eating healthy food and exercising. This is far more effective than pledging to yourself that you will achieve your ideal body and you will stick to your diet which suggests this is something you will achieve at a later time, or not. What you are doing here is building a new Self Image which is probably the most important element in your weight loss battle. If you have the Self Image of a slim person then you will be slim, if you have the mindset of an overweight person then you will continue to be overweight.
State Change. Your state of mind can really affect the results you have on a day to day basis. It stands to reason then that if you change your state you will change your results. Very often people who comfort eat tend to do so to change their state of mind, for example eating cookies in some way makes you feel better for a short time. It is possible however, to change your state through other methods. Try the following:
1. Stand up straight
2. Put your shoulders back
3. Make yourself smile
4. At the same time think of a time if you felt really positive - make it up if you can't come up with a memory.
5. Exclaim Yes! as if you have just achieved something you have been trying to do for a while, just make it up, imagine.
6. Anchor that state, you can use a word, or physical anchor such as making a fist, or squeezing your thumb and index finger together - whatever works best for you. This physical gesture or word becomes associated in your mind with the state of being motivated, and with practice you will be able to use this anchor to re-activate this state whenever you need. This is a very powerful technique which only takes a very short time to learn.
Re-frame. This is where you shift your paradigm and take a look at the problem or situation from different angles. The state change we just talked about is one way of re-framing, another way is simply considering other options and being open minded about the outcome.
Here's an example of re-framing, what do you feel if you think about dieting, usually people will think, deprivation, hardship, misery, problematic, time consuming. This frame is not exactly going to help you lose weight. What if you deliberately re-framed your view of dieting. Think about the results you will achieve, think about all that good food you will be feeding your body, whole, natural food is so much more appetizing than junk food, think about how much energy you will have, and think about the sense of achievement, think about learning new cookery skills and recipes if that appeals to you. Your weight loss plan looks so much better now, in fact I want to start right now!
This is just a brief look at how NLP can help you lose weight there is a lot more you can do but the tips I have included in this article will get you started and certainly make losing weight easier for you.
About the Author
To help you stay on track with your weight loss plan download your free Weight Loss Success Planner by Dianne R Maurer. Dianne is a Weight Loss Success Coach check our her site and read more articles on the psychology of weight loss.
Article Source: The -One Article Directory-
Print View Total views: 18 Word Count: 805 - 0 comments
