The beginning . . . . Letting Go!

You can't solve a problem with the same mind that created it.  - Albert Einstein

The first part, lesson, step, principal of Body Belief is LETTING GO!  Yes, that's it, letting go.  Letting go of all the ways you've tried in the past to lose weight and change your body.

That includes: diets (all diets even ones we call "food plan"), exercise programs, naming food "good" or "bad",  weighing yourself (yes, that's right), any behavior that looks and feels like "starting" a diet or some health program. No fasting or New Year's detox.  Really!

The key to a new paradigm is change.  Albert Einstein said, "You can't solve a problem with the same mind that created it."  And no wiser advice has ever been given.   Each year we all want to start the year off in a new way. Losing weight, exercising and getting healthy, but we also know that we've tried that for the past 20 or so years and we are still fat.  OR, we started off the year great, lost some weight, starting getting fit and then one day woke up and forgot we ever heard the word "gym" or "low fat".  That is trying to solve the problem with the same mind that created it!

This year I've decided to try something new.  I'm starting off the year doing the exact opposite of what I normally do.  If I start thinking of going on a diet, I immediately tell my self "NO!" and  think of something I haven't tried to change before - like my thinking!  

I've been reading a book by Lynn Grabhorn called Excuse Me, Your Life is Waiting and she talks about the 16 second rule. If you start thinking an old, negative and defeating thought, you have 16 seconds to recognize it and switch it to a new thought - especially a thought that makes you feel good.   I realized that when I start thinking about how I need to go on a diet the next thought is usually about how unhappy I am with my body and my life and I start to feel bad.  So all my thinking about dieting and changing my eating just leads back into that downward spiral of the diet mentality.  And that is not going to led to the change I want!

So, I have been paying attention to the 16 second rule.  As soon as I start to think one of those old patterned thoughts, I can see it immediately and I switch it in the opposite direction.  Yesterday my thoughts started going to how much weight I have gained and how I long its going to take to get in shape and BAM I heard it and recognized I needed to shift to thoughts that make me feel good.  So, I went to my computer, clicked on my iTunes and started playing a great song by Bill Withers called Lovely Day and it instantly changed my energy,  I danced around my office and I started feeling good.  It works!  This year I am doing things differently!