Mastering self-talk to keep the weight off!

Due to the popularity of the recent post on mindset by the lovely Annette Tonkin from Mind & Body Consultancy, we’ve brought her back to impart some more wisdom! This week Annette talks to us about self-talk and how we can be sabotaging our weight loss efforts without realising, and how to enhance our weight loss goals by changing our thoughts and ultimately keep weight off in the long term. Thanks Annette!

Behavioural researchers have told us that as much as 75% of everything we think is negative, counterproductive, and works against us. Yes – 75%! Unfortunately, repetition is a convincing argument. It wires the brain so that future negative thoughts become easier to think.

Unless the negative programming is erased or replaced with different programming, it will stay with you permanently and affect and direct everything you do for the rest of your life.

You become a living result of your own thoughts. I touched on this in my last blog on visualisation.

How successful you will be at anything is inexorably tied to the words and beliefs about yourself that you have stored in your unconscious mind.

You will become what you think about most. Your brain simply believes what you tell it most.

You’re embarking on a journey with your sleeve surgery. Your sleeve will give you the physical support you need to change your life but what about that underlying self that helped get you to where you are now.

Your brain and sense of self need to be addressed as well as the physical side of things. Below are some examples of negative self talk that many of us use at some time in our life. It’s common and I think to some degree normal. It only becomes a problem if the internal chatter is entrenched, repetitive and disabling.

Examples of negative self talk:

So what do you do if you current self talk is destructive and disempowering?

Step one

Become consciously aware of your current self talk. It is very easy for the brain to have an under current of negative self talk that is unconscious. You are not even aware what you’re saying to yourself.

Step two

Once you become aware of what you’re saying to yourself you have a choice whether you wish to continue with the current conversation or change it.

Step three

If you decide to change your current negative self talk that’s when the work really starts. Your brain has an entrenched pattern of thinking that you’ve refined over many years. It’s not going to change just because you want it to. You have to put the work in and repeat the new self talk over and over again until your brain begins to develop new wiring.

As I mentioned above – repetition is a convincing argument. You don’t have to believe what you are saying at first but you MUST persist.

You don’t come into the world with the brain wiring you have now. You had to work hard to create your current reality and you will have to work hard to change it. But it is possible – you just have to start!

Let’s look at some of the statements above and see how you could adapt them to be more empowering.

“I just can’t seem to lose weight”
“I getting a little bit thinner every day”

“I can’t do this”
“If I could do this what would I do”

“I just can’t take it anymore”
“I’ve been in difficult situations before and have found a way to manage it”

“I just can’t seem to get organised today”
“Today I’m committed to becoming more organised”

“Sometimes I hate myself”
“There are times when I struggle with self worth but I am slowly getting better recognising that I’m an ok person”

Whatever your own self talk is, the aim is to turn it into a statement of possibility. Start by writing your thoughts down as you become aware of them, then write down a more positive option.

I use an app called 5-Minute Journal to help me work on specific areas of my life. It really does only take 5 minutes. You write out three things you’re grateful for, three things that will make today great and one daily affirmation. At the end of the day you write down three amazing things that happened and how you could have made the day better.

It is a great tool that is simple to use and you will find in the iTunes app store. It costs $7.99 and I have no affiliation with it. I just use it and find it very beneficial especially when I’m struggling myself.

Your self talk will ultimately dictate the success or failure you’ll have in making major changes in your life. If you choose not to deal with it, the likelihood of a result that is less than what you expect, is very high.