Firstly, Mind Over Muffin has officially launched, how exciting is that! So make yourself at home on the site and enjoy the freebies! It’s a pleasure to have you here.
It’s been a few weeks since I’ve uploaded a video blog as my new site was being built so I’ll be back to regular posts now!
So this week I want to talk to you about the dreaded yo-yo dieting cycle that you can easily get trapped in, why it happens and how to avoid it.
Obviously this is speaking from first hand experience as a ’professional yo-yo dieter’ I tried loads of different diets, the 1200 calorie restricted ones, weight loss shakes and exercised excessively but nothing would shift for me.
And I’ll tell you why.
So usually when you want to lose weight, it’s because you’re not feeling great about yourself right?
It’s because you feel uncomfortable in your clothes, feel sluggish inside from the bad food and are quite frankly fed up.
We’ve all been there.
But then what happens is you go on a diet and start eating less, you restrict your calorie intake, move more and before you know it some of the weight starts to shift – great!
Until…you start improving and feel slightly more comfortable with where you’re at, the clothes fit better, you feel healthier, you’ve got more energy and before you know it, you pass on a gym session or two, swap a salad for a burger, fall back into the habit of a packet of chips on the sofa at night and before you know it you’re right back where you started. Sound familiar?
So the cycle begins again, except now you say ‘I’m really sticking to it this time’ and are secretly full of anger and frustration with yourself, which is quite frankly really disheartening.
Now this cycle is destined to repeat itself and this is due to the motivation to move being negative. What do I mean by this?
Well the intention of change is due to feeling uncomfortable, it’s moving away from all the negative feelings, e.g hating your body, feeling uncomfortable, eating bad food and feeling horrible for it, they’re all negatives.
To truly move towards permanent positive change your mind needs a positive motivator, one it can naturally continue to move towards. For example, ‘ I want to exercise and eat well so I feel amazing in my body’, unconsciously your mind knows exactly what it’s moving towards.
This sounds like such a simple shift but it’s incredibly powerful. There’s no point trying to motivate your mind with negative goals. So the golden question to ask yourself is ‘what do I want?’ and ensure your answer is focused on a positive.
Avoid the following ‘ I want TO NOT FEEL uncomfortable in my jeans’ This is still focused on the negative, it has to be “I WANT TO FEEL amazing in my jeans and for my tummy to feel toned.’ Make sense?
Now the second reason why the ‘yo-yo’ occurs is because of the real internal reason of ‘why’ you can’t lose weight never truly being resolved.
Weight loss is viewed as a physical problem, an external one, but actually the majority of it is an internal job. You probably think that you struggle with your weight because of food, that food is the problem, but actually it’s the reason WHY you want the food that’s the problem. No amount of restricting your food is going to change this.
So for me for example, I went through a bad break up, buried the emotion and this became the driver of the need for food, meaning I over ate and then gained weight. So what’s the real problem here, the food or the emotion from the break up, see what I mean?
So my task for you this week is to pay close attention to how you are motivating yourself to change, is it positive or negative? Get clear with it, write it down. Ensure you are focused only on positive reasons why you want to change. Your language is one of the gateways to your mind, and your mind is the most powerful tool in your possession that can create anything, so choose your words carefully.
And secondly consider what could be going on below surface level for you? What is this weight or food problem really about? Get clear with it, bring it into your conscious awareness, this alone is another to create incredible shift!
Be sure to keep an eye out on Facebook for my live videos! And be sure to reach out if you need anything1
Lots of love
