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Weight loss for Couch Potatoes: Don't Get up, I'll Explain...
You have some weight to lose and you know it! Most of us think we already know why we are fat.
Maybe you think its because you just don't have enough time and motivation to exercise. Maybe
its because you love food and don't quite have enough willpower to cut back sufficiently. But
surprisingly there is probably more to your weight struggles than you think!
The real reason you may be over weight is because you have the mind of a well-trained athlete.
Don't laugh quite yet. Have you ever noticed how quickly athletes gain weight when they retire
from competition? It's crazy! Whats exciting it if you understand how the subconscious works you
can learn to control your weight without extreme diets or an exercise schedule you cant maintain
long term.
Weight Loss and your Mind
Before I continue, I want to clarify that the immediate cause of weight-gain is what you eat and
how you live. However, controlling what you eat and how you live is elusively difficult.
Most of us pride ourselves in being rational adults, in control of our choices. But in truth, we rarely
ever do anything that brings us discomfort in the short run. You think otherwise? Go take a
straight-cold shower and think about if you would voluntarily do it again anytime soon. It won't hurt
you, but it will make your body angry. And the fact of the matter is that we are usually slaves to
response patterns established by our bodies.
Controlling Your Mind: The Key to Controlling your Body
Training your body is all about training your mind. Im referring to your sub-conscious mind, where
deep emotions, established patterns, habit and instant responses live. You are a trinity of sorts, 1)
a lazy body, 2) a clever and fickle conscious mind and 3) a lumbering but steady subconscious
that does most of the work.
You probably know already that the subconscious mind provides emotional responses to reinforce
good behavior, but what you might not know is that the subconscious is also responsible for all
athletic ability. Even the simple stuff like walking is a constant interaction of conscious commands
and unconscious responses. For example, when you learn to shoot a basketball, what you are
actually doing is using the conscious mind to burn a pattern into a subconscious skill-set. When
you've truly mastered a move, you no longer have to think about it. If you're still thinking about the
mechanics of a dance step -- it's a sign that you have not learned it yet. Meaning your
subconscious cannot yet take over. Once you have learned the skill, your conscious mind only
needs to call out the command and the subconscious does the action.

2. To better understand your psychology, imagine a chimp riding on the back of an elephant. The
subconscious mind is like a slow strong elephant while your conscious mind is like the clever fast
chimp.
Chimp (conscious mind)
Fast
Clever
Creative
Forgetful
Thinks he's in control
Elephant (subconscious)
Slow
Not creative
Slow learner with a vast memory
Usually in control
The Willpower Myth
This little metaphor also allows me to point out the problem with the whole "willpower" concept; the
conscious mind overwhelming the subconscious with a show of brute force. Imagine the chimp
wrestling the elephant. What "brute force" is the chimp planning to use? The elephant is just going
to sit on him and the game is over. Unfortunately that is exactly where many diet ends when driven
by willpower alone. The subconscious is a powerful part of your mind; you can control it through
persuasion but not with brute force.
The Elephant, the Stick and the String
In Indonesia, elephants are used in construction work because they are so powerful and obedient.
All day long the elephant moves hundreds of tons of stone and wood and at night he taken to his
bed and tied up. Do you know the rope size required to hold the elephant? Just a little string tied to
a stick driven into the ground.
You see, when the elephant was very young, he was tied with the same stick and string and was
too little to pull free. For the rest of his life, he remembers this and never questions the superior
strength of the little stick and string. Think about it.
What are you really capable of? Your limitations are primarily defined by experience and most
likely do not bear much relation to your actual capabilities. Like the elephant, you may be tethered
by pre-established or childhood ideas. Most of your adult personality is built from assumptions that
may no longer be true.
Heres the good news: you're not just an elephant - you're also part chimp! Your mind has a small,
clever, conscious aspect that gives you the ability to reprogram your entire mind. That's right, your
conscious mind has the ability to completely re-write and take control of your entire mental reality.

3. This ability defines humans; it allows us to train our minds to do amazing things. From playing
concert piano to extreme sports, the vast power of the mind is tapped by this uniquely human
capability.
Ok, so what does all this have to do with weight loss?
Remember that the elephant learns and repeats patterns of behavior that are taught to it, so the
real question is "how do I teach my subconscious?
Our subconscious mind ignores most of what we tell it because we bark at it in the wrong
language. The language of the subconscious mind is EMOTION. Using the barometer of our
emotion, the subconscious mind is able to determine the importance of any particular behavior.
When you're working hard to learn a new skill, but you are not enjoying the task and your
emotions are saying "this sucks. How much longer is this going to take?" it's going to take a lot
longer to learn the skill because you're broadcasting to your subconscious mind to "ignore this
activity, just move along, there's nothing to see here."
It may not always feel like it, but you're in full control of your conscious emotions; it is the
fundamental method of programming the subconscious mind. It is, without a doubt, a form of
natural hypnosis. Whereas traditional hypnosis works by moving aside the conscious mind,
emotional programming works by using the conscious mind, but to the same end.
This is where it often gets tricky: Remember how I mentioned that we have three parts? Body,
conscious and subconscious? Well, as it turns out, your body is busy programming your
subconscious mind all the time. For example, you're hungry so you bite into a slice of thick cheesy
pizza, at which point your body screams out (on an emotional level) "this is a good activity". Food
cravings are actually subconscious patterns based on years of such programming.
Thankfully, the mind is fully re-programmable.
Now that you understand the basic mechanics of programming your mind, you can put it into
practice right away. The trick, in a nutshell, is to replace food cravings with exercise cravings. This
technique is fun and very powerful because, rather than working against years of food
programming, you're going to simply translate an existing food craving into a desire for exercise.
Magic? It's better!
It's quite simple: When you begin to feel the initial sense of hunger, do this instead of eating:
Breathe in deeply, relax, and feel the hunger - then don't think of food. Instead, imagine yourself
doing sit-ups (or another exercise you enjoy doing) and absolutely loving it. Visualize yourself
hungry and exercising and let a feeling of joy and satisfaction flood over you. Then return to
whatever you were doing.
In a few minutes, when the next pang of hunger comes, repeat this mental exercise. Keep it up for
an hour or so and then go have a light snack. While you are eating (especially while you are
eating) visualize yourself exercising and loving it. Associate in your imagination hunger, exercise
and joy.

4. Hunger, Sit-ups and Joy - Crazy?
Perhaps, but what you are doing is linking a desirable behavior to a very well established
response pattern. You will be amazed at how you can use this technique to stimulate a deep urge
to workout. The mind is truly amazing.
After a few days of doing this mental exercise, go ahead and give into the urge to workout. As you
exercise, make sure to continue the emotional feedback by "letting" yourself enjoy exercise. If you
feel yourself not enjoying the process, take control of your emotions right away or stop exercising.
It's not worth sabotaging your work to burn a few extra calories.
Don't push your body, push your mind! Your mind is the only gymnasium that really matters.
Eventually, your mind will push your body and you will be able to enjoy the process.
I remember several years ago when I first experimented with this technique. As I started craving
sit-ups, I realized that doing sit-ups would physically relieve any sense of hunger for an hour or so.
I thought I had stumbled upon the strangest diet plan ever, the "silly, happy, sit-up diet". But really,
what I had discovered was the ability to consciously channel deep cravings to accomplish a
desired objective.
Our mind is amazing but unfortunately doesn't come with a user's manual. Most of the time our
minds work pretty well on autopilot, so we rarely need to pop the hood and explore its full
potential. It's a shame because most of what we want in life - success, happiness, health, good
relationships, the satisfaction of achievement - are all within our reach and the only thing holding
us back is, you guessed it, a string and a stick.
Try this technique out to help establish healthy eating habits and patterns. You will be pleasantly
surprised about how quickly you will lose your excess weight.
==== ====
NOTICE: You should check out the diet that compliments the exercise! Click on the link.
www.bodyfatlosstoday.com
==== ====