Don't get up, I'll explain how to Lose Weight if You're a Couch Potato
You're overweight, and you're well aware of it! Now I'm going to tell you something that you may not already be aware of
You believe you understand why you are overweight, but you are mistaken. You believe it is due to a lack of time and desire on your part to engage in physical activity. You believe it is because you are a foodie who lacks the necessary resolve to reduce your consumption enough. You have absolutely no idea what you're talking about!
When it comes down to it, the actual reason you're gaining weight will astound you: it's because you have the mentality of a highly trained athlete. Don't start laughing just yet. Have you ever observed how quickly sportsmen acquire weight when they are no longer competing in sports? It's out of this world. Athletes bloat for the same reason that they are excellent at sports in the first place - they have particularly "trainable" subconscious brains. You can learn to manage your weight without dieting, suffering, or following an inhumane workout regimen if you grasp the process.
Weight loss and the development of an athletic mindset
Before I go any further, I should point out that it is true that the primary cause of weight growth is what you consume and how you live your lifestyle. I'm not advocating any kind of pseudo-science in this article. Controlling what you eat and how you live, on the other hand, is elusively tough, as I shall demonstrate to you. If you believe that you can alter your behavior pattern only by pure willpower, you simply haven't tried hard enough yet.
Sure, you and I take pleasure in being mature, logical adults who are in command of our lives and in command of our fate. But it is a complete and utter load of nonsense. When it comes down to it, we almost never do something that causes us pain in the near term. Do you have a different point of view? To demonstrate who is in command, take a cold shower directly from the faucet. For two days, you must abstain from solid meals. Even while it won't harm you, it will make your body enraged. And the truth of the issue is that we are typically slaves to the reaction patterns that our bodies have developed for us. I'm sorry, but it's the truth.
The key to maintaining control over your body is to maintain control over your mind
It is all about training your thoughts when it comes to training your body. Rather than mathematics, we're talking about your subconscious mind, which is the location of intense emotions, established patterns, habits, and rapid reactions. The three of you are a trinity of sorts, consisting of a sluggish body, a smart but changeable conscious mind, and a ponderous but stable subconscious that does much of the heavy lifting around the office.
It is likely that you are already aware that the subconscious mind produces emotional reactions to reward "positive" behavior (such as eating pizza), but what you may not be aware of is that the subconscious mind is also responsible for all athletic talent. Even the most basic tasks, such as walking or typing, involve a continuous interplay between conscious instructions and unconscious reactions. For example, when you learn to shoot a basketball, what you are really doing is utilizing your conscious mind to burn in a pattern that will eventually become a subconscious skill-set for shooting basketball. A motion is "no longer necessary to think about" after you have really mastered it. The fact that you are still thinking about the mechanics of a dance step indicates that you have not yet "learned" it, according to the experts. That is, your subconscious has not yet been able to take over. Once you have "learned" a skill, all you have to do is cry out the order, and your subconscious will take care of the rest.
In order to better comprehend your psychology, let's compare your mind to the minds of two different animals: picture a Chimp riding on the back of an Elephant. In contrast to your subconscious mind, which is like a sluggish, stupid, and powerful elephant, your conscious mind is like a smart, quick chimp.
Chimpanzee (conscious mind)
- Fast
- Clever
- Creative
- Forgetful
- He believes he is in command
Elephants are a good example of this (subconscious)
- Slow
- This isn't innovative.
- The slow learner with a large amount of information stored in his head
- Exceptional reflexes (well, so the metaphor isn't great).
- Generally speaking, in command
The Myth of Willpower
Because of this small metaphor, I am able to bring out the ridiculousness of the whole notion of "willpower," in the sense of the conscious mind imposing its will on the subconscious via a display of physical force on the subconscious. Seriously, picture the monkey wresting the elephant from his grasp. Where has the chimp's "brute force" disappeared to? The elephant is just going to sit on him, and the game will be over for them. By the way, when willpower is the only source of support on a diet, that is precisely where every diet comes to an end. The subconscious mind is a very powerful portion of your mind to have access to. You can influence it via persuasion, but you cannot control it through force.
The Elephant, the Stick, and the String are three characters in a story
Elephants are employed in construction work in Indonesia because they are both strong and docile, making them an excellent choice. During the day, the elephant carries hundreds of tons of stone and timber, and at night, he is tethered to a straw bed in a nearby field. Do you have any idea how large a rope is needed to keep an elephant in place? The only thing holding it together is a little piece of thread tied to a stick hammered into the ground.
You see, when the elephant was a baby, he was bound with the same stick and thread as he is now - and he was too little to be able to free himself. He will remember this for the rest of his life and will never doubt the greater power of the little stick and thread. Consider the implications of this.
What do you believe you are really capable of? To put it bluntly, you have no clue what you're talking about. Your limits are determined by your early experiences - and they have nothing to do with your adult skills. You, like the elephant, are emotionally tied by notions from your infancy. The majority of your adult personality is nothing more than a protective cage constructed by a frightened kid. What would you be willing to give up if you had the ability to reinvent yourself?
Let me now share the wonderful news with you: you are not only a part elephant, but you are also a part chimp! That might have sounded a little better, but whatever. This tiny, intelligent, aware part of your mind provides you with the power to reprogramme the whole of your subconscious mind. Your conscious mind (the chimp) has the power to totally rewrite and assume control of your whole mental world.
People are defined by their capacity to adapt, which makes us the most adaptable creatures on the planet and enables us to train our brains to do incredible feats. This one-of-a-kind human talent is used in a variety of activities ranging from performing at a concert piano to participating in extreme sports.
All right, so what does any of this have to do with losing weight?
The elephant learns and repeats patterns of behavior that have been taught to it - the true issue is "how to educate the subconscious." Here's a straightforward single technique that everyone should be familiar with. If you grasp this basic concept, you will be able to control your own thoughts and emotions. You will also get an understanding of why our educational system is ineffective (but that is a topic for another post completely).
We communicate with our subconscious mind in the incorrect language, and as a result, the majority of what we say is ignored. Emotions are the primary language of the subconscious mind. The subconscious mind is able to assess the significance of any specific action by using the barometer of our emotions as a guide. Consider the following scenario: you're attempting to acquire new talent. You're putting in the effort to learn, but you're not enjoying yourself, and your emotions are telling you, "this stinks, I wish I was somewhere else, how much longer is this going to take?" As a result, you'll have to wait a lot longer since you're sending the message to your subconscious mind that "ignore this activity, just go ahead, there's nothing here." What was your emotional condition like throughout high school, and how quickly did you pick up new information?
Even if it may not seem like it, you have complete control over your conscious feelings. And this is the basic technique of programming the subconscious mind, as described above. Definitely a natural hypnotic state, there's no question about it. Unlike conventional hypnosis, which works by removing the aware mind from the situation, emotional programming works by including the conscious mind - but with the same result.
Then there's the dark side: remember how I said that there are three sides to everything? What about the body, the conscious mind, and the subconscious mind? It turns out that your body is constantly training your subconscious mind, which is a fascinating discovery. For example, if you're hungry, you could bite into a big piece of cheesy pizza, which causes your body to cry out (on an emotional level) "this is excellent exercise, very very good activity." Cravings for food are really subconscious tendencies formed as a result of years of conditioning.
Fortunately, the mind can be completely re-programmed
Now that you understand the fundamentals of programming your mind, you may put your newfound knowledge into action right now. What you're going to do is replace your food desires with workout cravings in order to lose weight. This method is both entertaining and very effective because, rather than fighting against years of food programming, you will utilize mental Ju-Jitsu to simply convert an existing food need into a desire to exercise, rather than the other way around. Magic? It's much better now!
It's very simple: first and foremost, you're going to refrain from eating for a period of time (non-sugared drinks are ok). This is not a diet plan, and we are not attempting to reduce weight at this time. We're just attempting to elicit a hungry reaction from the subject. Now, when you begin to experience the first pangs of hunger, follow these instructions:
Take a few deep breaths, relax, and feel the hunger - but don't worry about eating for a while. Instead, see yourself performing sit-ups and really enjoying yourself. That's correct, imagine yourself hungry and doing sit-ups while allowing a sense of pleasure and fulfillment to wash over your body. Then you may go back to what you were doing.
When the next pang of hunger strikes, return to this mental exercise and repeat it for a few minutes. You should keep it up for an hour or two and then go get something to eat. While you are eating (and particularly while you are eating), imagine yourself performing sit-ups and enjoying yourself while you are doing them. Associate the words hunger, food, situps, and pleasure with your imagination.
Hunger, food, sit-ups, and happiness: what do you need? He's completely insane
While that may be true, what you are doing is connecting the desired action with a very well-known response pattern. You will be surprised at how well you can utilize this method to elicit a strong desire to do sit-ups. The human intellect is really remarkable.
As a side note, after a few days, you should give in to the temptation to do some sit-ups. Keep the emotional feedback going by "allowing" yourself to appreciate the activity you are doing while you are doing it. If you see yourself becoming disinterested in the activity, either take control of your emotions or quit exercising immediately. It's not worth jeopardizing your productivity in order to burn a few more calories.
Instead of pushing your body, try pushing your thoughts! The only gymnasium that truly counts is the one in your head. The process of overcoming obstacles will eventually become enjoyable as the mind pushes your body forward.
I recall my first experiments with this method, which took place many years ago. As I began to want situps, I discovered that doing situps would physically alleviate any hunger I may be experiencing for about an hour. I was certain I had discovered the weirdest diet plan ever when I came across the "silly, cheerful, situp diet." But, in reality, what I had found was the capacity to deliberately sublimate strong desires in order to achieve a certain goal. To learn more about this method, I highly recommend that you download a self-hypnosis MP3 audio called "Appetite Zapper," which is available for free download. It will guide you through the steps necessary to regain full control over your food cravings:
The human intellect is incredible, but it does not come with an instruction manual. Most of the time, everything runs well on autopilot, and we seldom take the time to open the hood and discover its full potential. The truth is that much of what we want in life - prosperity, happiness, health, good relationships, and the pleasure of accomplishment - are all within our grasp, and the only thing that stands between us and our goals is, you guessed it, a string and a stick.
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Don't get up, I'll explain how to Lose Weight if You're a Couch Potato