Monday, May 17, 2004

Getting Thin from the Inside Out

One of the preachers I listen to is named Jerry Savelle.  As he tells his Oop Story (you gotta hear it), he says that he was believing for an airplane to meet his speaking itenerary and God told him to act as though he had an airplane.  Of course, Jerry's first reaction is, "Act as though I have an airplane?  What do you want me to do?  Go fly around on a runway with my arms outstretched?"  And God clarifed that he needed to make travel plans that it would be impossible to keep if he didn't have an airplane.  This would be how he acted on his faith that God would provide him the airplane.

It sounds a little crazy, but most things done on Faith generally do.  As I pondered this illustration and how it pertains to my Journey, I realized that it's all about a mindset.  Like Dr. Phil says, there is no reality, only perception.  My body is at the mercy of my mind, what I tell it to do it will do.  This was proven in Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway as Dr. Jeffers demonstrated to her students that by telling ourselves that we are weak or strong, we become physically weak or strong.  She has a student stand up and hold out their arm and then she attempts to push it down.  If she cannot she tells the student then to repeat to themselves, "I am weak," five times.  Then, much to the astonishment of her students and the experimentee themselves, she is now able to push the arm right down.  So then she tells the student to repeat to themselves five times "I am strong".  This time as she attempts to push the arm down, she cannot.

Our body responds to what we tell it.  This is why it's so detrimental to say negative things about ourselves.  Our body, our subconscious, believes what it hears, whether it is true or not.  Now some of you might be a little skeptical to the experiment I mentioned above.  My growth buddy had to see it to believe it.  Both of us experimented this on our unsuspecting partners and discovered it does in fact work exactly like she said in the book.

The mind is a very powerful thing.  It's pretty incredible what you can accomplish when you set your mind to something. 

This is another area where I've lost some steam.  My chatterbox nags whenever it can that there's no way that I can lose 205lbs.  It totally discounts the 64lbs I've already lost, saying to me that it doesn't matter, I'll give up eventually and I'll never be thin.  I can't picture myself thin and in that way subconsciously I'm holding onto this fat.  I do things that sabotage the Journey, so that I don't see the results like I used to - this validates what my Chatterbox is telling me, that I'm failing.  That this is the beginning of the end.

So I decided what I need to do is I need to become thin from the inside out.  If my body does what it is told, then it needs to be told it has to shed the rest of this weight - and I won't take anymore lip about it from my Chatterbox. 

Some of you might be asking, how does one become thin on the inside?  How does one "act" as though they are thin?  Well, for one to act as though I'm no longer overweight.  Simply defined I need to stop letting the fact I'm obese keep me from doing the things I need to do.  This lends to going to college, learning to swim, and doing all those other things I'm planning to do.  It's time to dump the excuses so that I can finally dump this weight.  I'm also going to exercise like I'm already thin.  Like it's no big deal to walk or bike or do Pilates.  It's not hard, I've done it many many times before - and a lot heavier at that.

The second thing I'm doing is I'm making plans.  I don't know about you but I've always been reluctant to make plans "just in case" something happened and I abandoned the Journey.  For instance, Steven suggested yesterday I should buy a dress in my goal size and then when I can wear it we'll go out and celebrate a night on the town.  My first response was the negative one, why spend money like that if I don't know if I'll make it to a certain size?  The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea.  Nothing could be more inspiring than to have a size 14* dress hanging in my face saying GET OFF YOUR TUSH SO YOU CAN WEAR ME!

So I went shopping for "Thin Clothes".  I already have the wedding gown picked out, it's the dress I originally wanted to wear because I saw it at David's Bridal and it was breathtaking.  I do plan to renew my vows next year when I'm at goal weight, to get my wedding photos taken with me the way I wanted to look.  And besides, the way I see it Steven will be marrying anew person.   

I was looking at shoes - sexy shoes I can't stuff my big Flintstone feet into at the moment.  I'm going to buy these things as finances allow, as one more wayto act on my faith that I WILL make it to goal weight. 

In my mind, I'm already there.

DAILY AFFIRMATION:  I am what I say I am; strong, healthy and beautiful.

Calories: 1297 / 25% fat
Sodium: 2309mg
Calcium: 758mg
Water: 48oz
Exercise: None

***edited at 6:38am after finding this article as I opened up my Netscape.  Coincidence?  I don't thinks so....

Focus on Thinking Differently to Lose Weight

*also edited to hit the more realistic measurements for my goal weight.  Thanks Theresa :)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ginger says,"DAILY AFFIRMATION:  I am what I say I am; strong, healthy and beautiful."
 OK hon, now tell us something we don't already know.  ;)  You are doing so well, the photos show this each time you update.  I noticed that each time you do post the photos you notice some change but I don't think you see the changes we see out here.  It is so hard for us to see ourselves as we really are.  Just keep picturing that 10 1/2 dress.  It will happen!  :)
Your proud other mama,
Jeannie

Anonymous said...

Interesting article...talk about timing, LOL! Tony Robbins says pretty much the same thing, not necessarily related to weight loss, but for all things, like financial success, career success, etc. Hey, I did something doofy with your addy and couldn't find it when I tried to mail your cassette to you. Can you resend it, please? My email is RogueAPBT@aol.com.

Cheryl

Anonymous said...

I've been reading your journal for a few months now.  I love the fact that you are so honest about your feelings, etc.  I do have a question for you ... the last week or so your exercise amount has been none ... why the sudden lack in this area?  Perhaps you are like me ... it's easy to forget to find time for that walk or trip to the gym.  Keep up the great work.  

Suzanne