If you put your mind to shedding some weight before Christmas, you won’t be feeling like a stuffed turkey come new year, says Theresa Fowler
As the end of 2014 approaches, many minds will be turning towards new year resolutions, with losing weight ranking in the number one spot. But as 88% of new year resolutions fail within the first three weeks of the year, are you ready to make 2015 the year you put an end to your excuses about your weight struggle?
It seems that as soon as we set ourselves goals, especially ones that require lifestyle changes, we often resist them or try to execute them through willpower alone, which doesn’t last very long. Any change happens in the mind first and if you don’t believe me, just how many plans have you stuck to in the past and done so with absolute pleasure and ease? At a guess, I bet it’s not many! This is because diets and quick fixes never look at the internal mindset stuff that is going on. But once you look at that, everything becomes easier.
So in order for you to embark on this 12 Days to a Guilt-Free Christmas plan, which will help you with focus, confidence and motivation, and not have you struggling with willpower, you must get clear on what it is you want to achieve in these next 12 days, remove the obstacles to achieving it and rewire your mindset so that it doesn’t feel like such a struggle.
1. Set your goal
How do you want to feel on the night of your Christmas party? For example: “I want to feel slimmer and more confident in my Karen Millen dress.”
2. Turn that goal into an I AM statement.
“I AM” are two of the most important words in the English language, for what you say after them determines your behaviour. For example; “I AM slimmer,” “I AM more confident,” or “I AM feeling slimmer and more confident in my Karen Millen dress.”
3. Make your goal cards.
Write each of these statements once on three separate revision cards in thick black pen.
4. Display your goal cards.
Put these cards all around your house so that you will see them multiple times during the day.
5. Display your outfit.
The dress or outfit that you’re planning to wear for your Christmas party should also be hanging up in a place where you will see it frequently.
6. Visualisation.
Each night as you lie in bed, imagine yourself getting into your dress, doing the zip up, feeling comfortable in it, having a flatter tummy, glowing skin, and feeling like a million pounds… whatever it is you want to look and feel like when you wear that dress, visualise yourself looking and feeling like it every night for the next 12 nights.
7. Rewiring your thoughts.
Steps 4-6 are ways of rewiring your mindset to believe that you can succeed in getting your goals. When your unconscious mind is repeatedly exposed to goals, images and reminders, then it has to rewire itself and your behaviour to achieve what it is you want to achieve.
However…
8. Clearing out the rubbish.
You also need to clear out your unconscious mind of all the old gunk and sludge (old beliefs, thoughts and habits) that no longer serve you, have held you back from sticking to a plan like this or getting your body confidence goals before. So, you need to take a piece of paper and write out your I AM goals. Next, write down every fear, experience or obstacle that might stop you from getting to that goal. Allow the pen to flow and just write, without trying to analyse it too much.
The things you will write down are your self-limiting beliefs and you are weeding them out so that all your I AM goals and visualisations have room to plant and grow (think of planting a seedling). You may feel quite emotional during this step when you uncover how you have been sabotaging yourself, but the great thing is that you can scrunch up that piece of paper and decide that you aren’t going to let these limiting beliefs stop you anymore.
As emotional as this exercise might make you, it will do you good in the long run, because you will have bought something unconscious to the surface and will now begin to feel more in control!
The 8 excerpts have been taken from ’12 Days To A Guilt-Free Christmas’. CLICK HERE for a free chapter download.
Theresa Fowler is the UK’s Only No Diet, No Calorie Counting Real Food Expert, author of Feel Like Sh*t? How to Stop Being Fat and founder of fitand40plus.com. Having lost 100lbs herself, she coaches women 40+ who have a history of yo-yo dieting to lose weight, feel better and look younger, all without counting calories.
Follow Theresa on Twitter at @sizedrop or join her on Facebook.
