Challenges – Program Yourself Thin https://programyourselfthin.com Wed, 08 Mar 2023 19:54:13 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9 https://programyourselfthin.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/cropped-pyt.png Challenges – Program Yourself Thin https://programyourselfthin.com 32 32 Are You Hypnotizing Yourself to Be Overweight? https://programyourselfthin.com/are-you-hypnotizing-yourself-to-be-overweight/ https://programyourselfthin.com/are-you-hypnotizing-yourself-to-be-overweight/#respond Wed, 08 Mar 2023 19:54:12 +0000 https://programyourselfthin.com/?p=10347 Do you feel like you’re stuck at your current weight because you may be hypnotizing yourself to stay there? Your internal dialogue and the way you speak to yourself play a significant role in controlling the reality that you see, and ultimately, your weight. You may have various voices in your head, such as a parent, boss, or friend voice, that impact your behavior. If you want to lose weight, the voice in your mind that beats you up and cracks a whip to keep you on track may not be the most effective. Instead, try to develop a new voice that is more kind, supportive, and encouraging. This new voice will help you learn and practice how to eat well and think like a thin person, which takes practice, effort, evolution, and growth.

Transcript ▼

Is it possible that you’re hypnotizing yourself right now to be at the weight that you’re currently living at, and that it is this process of hypnotizing yourself that is keeping you stuck at the weight you’re at and preventing you from getting to your goal weight? I believe it’s true, and I want to explain it a little bit more detail so that you can not only start using hypnosis to change your weight but so that you can start understanding hypnosis so you can see what you’re currently doing to yourself to keep yourself at the weight you’re at.

So, the first thing we want to recognize is that you have a thing called an internal dialogue. You know that voice in your head where you’re always talking to yourself? That’s your internal dialogue, and so hypnotists always say that people are their best or worst hypnotist because this voice is constantly in your head, literally hypnotizing you. And so you may think of it as just an internal running dialogue that goes on all day long, but the words that you’re using, the way which you speak to yourself, create feelings in your body and they control the reality that you see, and ultimately that is what’s dictating your weight, probably even more than your hormones or your physical body. It’s that impactful.

So, I want to break it down a little bit more. Once you recognize that you have an internal dialogue, you have this voice where you’re talking to yourself, we can go a little more in-depth with that because you actually have a few voices that you talk to yourself in. And so, yes, to some degree, you are a multiple personality person, we all are. And so, you may have a parent voice in there, you may have a boss voice, you may have a friend voice, you should have all these different voices in there, and they’re all impacting how you behave.

It’s understanding how these voices are inner Bob and it’s understanding what these voices are and how they impact you that I believe will give you the most control over your weight. So, when you want to lose weight, there’s a very good chance that the voice that starts to take over in your mind is a voice that is very authoritative and telling you what you can and can’t do. And when you don’t do the right things, it beats you up. And so, you have this voice that’s trying to drive you to make the right food choices. However, this voice is not very good at getting you the results that you want, right?

And so, a lot of times, if you think about your weight loss that you’ve achieved any sort of results in the past, it’s usually this very intense situation where you have this voice, almost, you know, cracking a whip on you, keeping you on track. And, again, when you get off track, it beats you up, but that is probably how you’ve gotten results in the past, right? This voice is cracking the whip, keeping you on track.

And so, how do you approach this in a different way? Because this voice, it is good at getting you started at something and doing something, but it’s not very good in helping you achieve the success that you can achieve because this beating you up, this cracking this whip is a very unpleasant, unhelpful way to try and change your behaviors. And ultimately, there’s no room for growth or improvement or evolution within this paradigm because this voice just says, you either do things right, and when you do things wrong, it’s because you’re a bad person, you need to be punished.

Well, I think a better way to approach this is that you start creating a new voice in your head, one that is more kind, supportive, and encouraging. So when you make mistakes, this voice says, “Okay, what happened there? Let’s see what’s going on. It’s not because you’re a bad person. You’ve had this habit of eating at night for the last 20 years, so of course, it’s not going to change instantly. Let’s think about what happened and what we could do better the next time around.”

You see, when you start to develop this sort of voice in your head, it is much more effective for helping you lose weight. Because the reason that you’re not losing weight is not because you know what to do and just need to get yourself to do it. That’s that old paradigm of needing that whip cracked on you. It’s more that you don’t know what to do, and you need to learn and practice how to do it. You technically know you should eat better, but that means almost nothing. That’s like if I want to play the piano I’ve never played, and I said, “I know how to play piano. I just need to hit the right keys at the right time in the right order.” Well, that doesn’t describe anything.

And at the end of the day, what’s going to allow them to play the piano is how much time I spend practicing on it. And it’s the same thing with your weight. So when you start to approach your weight as something that you need to practice, you need to practice eating well. You need to, in order to eat well, practice having the right foods there when you’re ready to be hungry and ready to eat. And so a lot of times, there’s a lot more to eating well than just being able to make a decision in the moment. It’s something that you develop. It’s like learning a language. It’s like learning a musical instrument. Your ability to think like a thin person and act like a thin person takes practice, effort, evolution, and growth.

And so the voice that you want to have guiding you along that process, the more supportive and encouraging it is, typically the faster the results are going to be. Because again, if we take it and put this in a different scenario, if you want to learn the piano and you know you had this teacher and every time you made a mistake, they snapped your hands with a ruler, how long would you want to do that for, right? How much would you improve? You know, probably not much. And so when you have an encouraging teacher who understands you’re going to make mistakes and is prepared for them and knows how to kind of move you over the different challenges that you’re going to face, that becomes a much more effective voice to help you get to where you want to go.

So this is something you have to take into account, and so the first step is recognizing it, right? You can’t just listen to this video and be like, “Okay, now I’m going to be supportive and encouraging with myself.” You see, even developing this encouraging voice is like learning another language. So it’s not about, “Oh, I know I should be more encouraging, that’s what I’m going to do.” Because you have your old habits and behaviors of beating yourself up to motivate yourself. And so the first step is realizing that voice really doesn’t work. It’s not helpful, even though you think it is. And as it starts to dawn on you that this voice is not helpful, I really do need a more encouraging, supportive voice inside my head guiding me along this process, then you start developing it. And you build it up just like you would learn another language almost.

I know that may sound silly, but that’s a much more accurate way to approach it than thinking that just because I know I should be more encouraging and supportive, then that’s just what I’m going to do. Now, knowledge and behavior are two separate things, and that gets to the core of this process.

You’ve approached weight loss like just because you know what you should do, you should just do it. There’s no respect for all of your habits and the routines and the way you’ve been living and thinking for the last 20-30 years. Okay, so this is much more of a process of training yourself, practicing to be healthy, creating a lifestyle, thought patterns, habits, behaviors, eating strategies that keep you thin and healthy at the goal weight that you want to live at.

And it takes practice. So again, it comes down to what voice do you want guiding you along that process, and which one do you think is going to be most effective? So take some time and think about it, start paying attention to the voice that’s already in your head. Right, I’m not saying this and making it happen. I’m pointing out something that’s been going on your entire life and will continue your entire life. You will constantly be in your head, talking to yourself.

So start paying attention to how you speak to yourself and start thinking about which voice is going to guide you in the right direction, that’s going to give you the results that you want.

]]> https://programyourselfthin.com/are-you-hypnotizing-yourself-to-be-overweight/feed/ 0 Perfectionism and How it Affects Weight Loss https://programyourselfthin.com/perfectionism-and-how-it-affects-weight-loss/ https://programyourselfthin.com/perfectionism-and-how-it-affects-weight-loss/#respond Wed, 08 Mar 2023 18:00:05 +0000 https://programyourselfthin.com/?p=10333
Perfectionism meme

As a weight loss coach for the last 20 years, I have noticed that most of my clients are perfectionists. They tend to measure themselves against perfection and have an inner voice in their minds that is always pointing out their shortcomings.

Perfectionism can work well for school, careers, and parenting because these areas have clear boundaries and structures that help individuals know what to do and how to do it. However, weight loss does not have clear defining structures, and the tactics used for weight loss are usually singular and insufficient.

Many people, especially perfectionists, tend to believe that drastic changes to their eating habits or cutting out certain foods altogether is the fastest way to lose weight. However, this mindset does not provide a complete understanding of how to master weight loss, and individuals may struggle to see results.

For example, someone who focuses only on not eating carbs may lose weight for a little while, but they are not taking into account the other factors that impact their weight. Their subconscious programming also plays a role in their eating habits, which means that using willpower to force themselves to not eat carbs becomes a conscious-oriented process.

Perfectionists tend to measure their results against perfection, making it almost impossible to achieve their expectations. This approach makes weight loss a difficult process for them, and they may feel discouraged when they do not see immediate and perfect results.

Transcript ▼

If you gave me one word to describe the typical client I’ve worked for the last 20 years to help master their weight, I would say ‘perfectionist,’ and I don’t know why I attract this type of person. It might be because I myself am a recovering perfectionist, but this is definitely almost every person I’ve ever worked with on some level as a perfectionist. And so it seems counterintuitive almost, right? That a person who’s a perfectionist, a lot of time, is able to use that quality to succeed in school, to succeed with their career, to succeed as a parent, or whatever thing’s really important to them, but when it comes to weight, it doesn’t seem to help that much, and I have a couple of reasons why that may be.

First off, what is a perfectionist? I think of a perfectionist as someone who measures themselves against perfection all the time, right? So instead of kind of measuring where they came from, they’re always looking at perfection and seeing where they fit in terms of that. And the other piece of it is that it seems like they often have an inner voice in their mind that is one of a parent, like a strict parent who nothing was ever good enough for them, a coach, a boss, that type of person who is always kind of pointing out their shortcomings and again measuring them against perfection. That’s where they learned it from.

Now, why does this work when it comes to work in a career, in school, and not seem to work very well with weight? Well, I think it’s because school and careers and even raising children, to some degree, it’s contained, okay? And so what I mean by that is that when you have a job, now again, these may be workaholics as well, but it’s still there. There’s work and there’s leisure, and there’s kind of boundaries there, and inside of those boundaries, there’s a structure for what you’re supposed to do. So when it comes to work, you know, at first, you’re not really sure of what those boundaries are and what those structures are, but as you continue down your career path, school, being a parent, you figure out how to do it, and you have a clear idea of what you should do and how to get it done.

Now with weight loss, a lot of times, there are not those clear defining structures of how to behave. There’s tactics, there’s the tactic of stop eating carbs, intermittent fast, count my points. It’s usually kind of one thing. And what happens is when we compare ourselves to perfection, but we don’t have the full strategy available to us, it becomes kind of impossible, I would say, to get the results you want.

I generally reference the Rubik’s Cube for myself. I used to play with the Rubik’s Cube all the time, trying to figure it out. And intuitively, I was trying to do one side, then the next side, and the next side, but that’s not how you fix a Rubik’s Cube. You have to follow this algorithm, which makes no intuitive sense. You just have to learn the algorithm. And weight loss is a lot like this. We think that the fastest way to really master our weight is to just stop eating or to drastically change how we’re eating in order to start losing weight. And again, that’s the perfectionist mindset that if I’m gonna do it, I’m going to do it all the way.

And when you apply that mindset with a diet mindset, you tend to get less than stellar results. And again, there’s a couple of reasons for this. One of the biggest ones is that you think you know what to do to lose weight, but in reality, you’re just trying to follow a tactic. It’s not a complete holistic strategy, and so your obsession with that one tactic – you may do it for a while – but that tactic’s not enough. It’s not a big enough understanding. It’s not a complete structural understanding of how to master your weight.

So let me give you some context to understand this. It’s like if you’re really focusing on, let’s just say, you’re going to do keto, and you’re really focusing on not eating carbs, that’s what you’re focusing on, okay? But the problem is that there are so many other things that are impacting your weight. It’s not just enough to know what you’re going to eat because our brain’s not designed to micromanage every little food decision. Our brain is designed to pretty much be on autopilot. And so it’s really driving our eating is our subconscious programming. So when we say, okay, I’m going to stop eating carbs, it becomes a very conscious-oriented process where we use our willpower to force ourselves not to eat carbs, okay? So that’s the first part, and that’s what a lot of perfectionists will do, and they will stop eating carbs for a little while. But then what happens is, as a perfectionist, that’s the only thing they’re doing. They’re not eating carbs, and so after a couple of days, a couple of weeks, they – this typically perfectionists measure their results based on the perfect results, and it’s almost impossible to hit those results for most people because those results are completely subjective to the person, right?

So if a perfectionist in their mind thinks they should lose two to four pounds a week and they only lose one to two pounds, then they may feel discouraged because, again, they’re measuring themselves against perfection, as opposed to measuring themselves and where they started from. And so right off the bat, it’s a very difficult process for them because if they’re not perfect, they experience that in a much more negative way than the average person does. Okay?

So when you’re just following a tactic, it gives you one thing to focus on, and the only thing you’re measuring is weight loss. So as an alternative to that, what I always help with people is how people do is have a much more holistic approach to mastering their weight. So it’s not just a tactic, an eating tactic of stop eating carbs, it’s multiple eating strategies, but more importantly, it’s the foundation of it is lifestyle strategies, and below that is mindset strategies. And so what happens is the perfectionist responds much better to this because now there are lots of different categories of things they can do well in. It becomes much more like college in a sense.

So it’s like most people approach weight loss like they’re going to go to college and take one class for four years, and it’s not enough. Right? You can’t take if you want to get a business degree, you can’t just take accounting for four years, right? There’s a lot more to it. Well, it’s the same thing with weight loss. Your weight loss does not just revolve around just the food you’re putting in your mouth. It does technically, but in order to get yourself to consistently eat that way, you need to look at these other factors, these lifestyle pieces.

What lifestyle piece am I talking about specifically? I’m talking about relaxation, hydration, your sleep, how you’re nourishing your body, movement, meditation, gratitude. These are the things that really allow you to inhabit a place within yourself and mentally to get yourself to eat the way you want to. And so what happens with perfectionists is, when it comes to their weight loss, because there are no boundaries with it, right? I mean, your weight is an all-the-time thing. So, with work, there are boundaries to when you’re doing it, even if you’re a workaholic. And with the weight, it’s just a 24-hour day thing. So, if you try and be a perfectionist and eat perfectly with your weight, you very quickly will burn yourself out. And the biggest problem is that once you make a mistake, instead of learning from it, you just beat yourself up about it. And you can only do this so long until you end up just quitting.

Okay, so the much better solution for a perfectionist is to realize, hey, you can’t be perfect with your weight. You can’t eat perfectly. There are just too many eating situations you’re going to have from here to your goal weight. And even once you reach your goal weight, you’re not going to be perfect. So, you really need to let go of that perfectionism. You need to focus more on getting consistent. Consistently doing things halfway will serve you better than doing one thing perfectly when it comes to your weight. So, it’s a complete reorientation of how you think of the process. And again, you have so many great skills. You know, the perfectionist has so many great skills they’re bringing to it, but they’re not utilizing them properly, you know? And so, what we want to do is, instead of trying to be perfect with one thing, we want to be pretty good with lots of things that are going to affect our weight.

This has been the biggest shift I’ve seen to really help people master it because now it’s not a one thing where you’re either all or nothing, you know? Because that’s what you’re doing in the past. You’re holding yourself to this high standard of how you’re going to eat perfectly starting tomorrow, and the second you make a mistake because you’re measuring yourself against perfection, you feel like you failed. It’s very difficult to keep going. And once you start feeling discouraged and down about how you’ve done, it’s very difficult not to eat the wrong food, you see? So, it’s the strategy right from the beginning that’s preventing you from getting the results you want, more than anything else, you know?

So, you need to be more intentional about how you’re going to use this perfectionist mindset that you have because you’re not going to change the perfectionism in yourself. You are a perfectionist and you will continue to be one. You can lower it a bit, you know? I mean, you can work with it a little bit, manage a little, but you can’t get rid of it. So, instead, we want to identify what you are at your core, and we want to utilize it. We want to be strategic with how you’re going to be a perfectionist so that you can get the results you want.

So, I hope this helps you understand it. And again, it’s never any time you ever struggle with your weight, it’s not a you problem, it’s a strategy problem. Very important to remember because once you are exposed to a new, better strategy that works for you, all of a sudden you feel re-motivated. You can start getting better results. And so, if you ever feel like you’re struggling, you’re not sure what to do, do not take it as it’s a problem with you. Take it as it’s a problem with your strategy and what you’re trying to do to get the results you want. And focus on that. All right I hope this helps you out I. hope you have a great day.

]]> https://programyourselfthin.com/perfectionism-and-how-it-affects-weight-loss/feed/ 0 The Biggest Mental Block to Losing Weight https://programyourselfthin.com/the-biggest-mental-block-to-losing-weight/ https://programyourselfthin.com/the-biggest-mental-block-to-losing-weight/#respond Sat, 28 Jan 2023 16:30:00 +0000 https://programyourselfthin.com/?p=10172

Transcript

One of the biggest blocks you have to losing weight is the fear of acknowledging the actual situation that you are in. There’s a good chance that every time you think about your weight, you’re activating your sympathetic nervous system – your fight, flight, or freeze response. So, when you start thinking about your weight and looking at it, you start getting nervous and scared and you don’t do it. The easiest way to overcome this is to activate your parasympathetic nervous system, which is easy to do. You can do it right now just by relaxing your face, relaxing your shoulders, relaxing your chest, your stomach, and taking a deep breath in. Now, slowly let it out. Take another deep breath in and slowly let it out. Now, if you want to go deeper into this, you can close your eyes or defocus them and use your peripheral vision. And, you can bring your attention down to your stomach and relax the stomach muscles as you relax those muscles feel that relaxation spreading throughout your stomach area and then feel that relaxation move up into your chest, relaxing the chest muscles. Feel your chest open and expand. Feel that relaxation continue to move up into your shoulders, moving up into your neck, up into your ears, and down into your jaw, relaxing the jaw muscles completely. Feel that relaxation move up over your lips, up into your nose, so that with each and every breath you begin to relax even deeper than before. Then let this field move up into your eyes and your eyelids, and completely relax your eyes. And let that feeling continue to move up in your eyebrows into your forehead and down over your face. So, now you’ve relaxed your body and you have activated your parasympathetic nervous system.

And from this place, you can begin to face this situation that you are in, recognizing that facing it and acknowledging it is the first step along the path to transforming it so that you can live in the body that you want to live in at the weight you want to live at. But, it starts by recognizing where you’re at, what you’ve done to your body in a calm relaxed way. You’ve done the best you can up until now, and so there’s no blame here. You’ve made mistakes, there’s things you didn’t know and you can accept those, recognize them and let them go because from this point forward it can be a completely new path for you, where you acknowledge that you have things to learn, things that you can prove improve on, ways to grow and evolve so you can become the person who you want to be from the inside to the outside. So that ultimately you become the person who you want to be and you live at the weight you want to live at so that you can face your body and feel wonderful about it.

And that feeling can begin right now. You don’t need to wait until you lose all the weight. It can start right now by connecting to your body at the moment and feeling a deep sense of love for this body that you have and begin to feel like you want to take better care of it, that you want to optimize it, that you want to make it the best body that you can make it. And it all starts by recognizing that you can change your life in this moment that every moment is another chance to turn it all around. And understanding this allows you to accept the situation for what it is even if you’re not happy with it, knowing that you can change it right now and create a completely different future for yourself. So start that process today and you’ll be happier tomorrow that you did.

]]> https://programyourselfthin.com/the-biggest-mental-block-to-losing-weight/feed/ 0 Healing Yourself To Lose Weight https://programyourselfthin.com/healing-lose-weight/ https://programyourselfthin.com/healing-lose-weight/#respond Fri, 20 Oct 2017 00:38:23 +0000 http://programyourselfthin.com/?p=6304

Your body is a delicate and complex system and your weight and ultimate health involve more than just cutting calories. The more you understand about how it works, the easier it is to lose weight and create the health you deserve. 

In this video, you'll learn...
- The Top Calorie Sources of American Adults
- How Your Primary Exposure To The World Affects You
- Why Inflammation Can Lead To Obesity
- The 4 Hormones That Control Your Weight
- How To Use The Power Of Your Microbiome

]]> https://programyourselfthin.com/healing-lose-weight/feed/ 0 3 Things Your Doctor Doesn’t Tell You About Losing Weight https://programyourselfthin.com/3-things-your-doctor-doesnt-tell-you-about-losing-weight/ https://programyourselfthin.com/3-things-your-doctor-doesnt-tell-you-about-losing-weight/#respond Mon, 21 Sep 2015 19:12:47 +0000 http://programyourselfthin.com/?p=2429 What doctors aren't telling you about weight loss
No one wants to hear it, but sometimes the best thing you can hear is your doctor telling you that you need to lose weight. There is no question that we take what doctors say to us more seriously than almost anyone else (except maybe a judge or IRS agent).

Sitting in a doctor’s office and having to face the reality that you’re at an increased risk of developing diabetes, heart disease or any other weight related issues is a very powerful experience which can become the spark needed to finally commit to living a healthier lifestyle and dropping the extra weight.

However, that initial spark is usually about as much as you can expect from the doctor because the truth is that in spite of all the schooling a doctor goes through when it comes to actually losing weight, most don’t know anymore than the average person.

#1 How to Eat

Although you probably think your doctor knows what you should eat to lose weight, the truth is that most doctors receive very limited training in nutrition. A University of North Carolina study found most medical students receive an average of only 19.6 hours of total nutrition training over their entire four years of medical school.

Now I have some conspiracy minded friends that say this is intentional because the money is in the treatment and not in the cure (or prevention) of diseases. Whether this is the reason or not, I don’t know, but it does seem clear that the current healthcare system is more set up to treat symptoms than what causes them.

Even with all the advancement in medicine worldwide obesity has more than doubled since 1980. Doctors are very good at identifying if you should lose weight, but in most cases the suggestions they give you come down to this…

Eat Better. And Exercise.

Basically, they’re just telling you things you already know.

#2 How to Exercise

Even though study after study is proving just how important exercise is to our weight, overall health and quality of life. Fewer than a quarter of doctors surveyed in a 2013 report felt they had adequate training on nutrition or physical activity to counsel patients.

And this lack of training is negatively affecting them too. According to a Medscape study in 2012, over 42% of male doctors and 36% of female doctors were overweight or obese. It can be hard to get your mind around the idea that the people you trust most with your body are not trained extensively in the two areas that are the very foundation of health, but it’s true.

#3 How to Stay Motivated

Honestly, if I had to pick the type of doctor who would be most effective in helping people lose weight, I’d choose a Psychiatrist (as long as treatment didn’t include medications). Because ultimately, losing weight comes down to getting your mindset right.

Most overweight people know what to do to lose weight (eat better, exercise more). The problem is they don’t know how to get themselves to do it consistently. This is the third and most important aspect of losing weight that most medical doctors are not able to help you with.

Knowing how to motivate yourself is the most overlooked part of almost every weight loss plan. A lot of people who want to lose weight end up struggling because they’ve never been taught the simple mental techniques you can use to get yourself to WANT to eat better and exercise.

Instead people try to fight against themselves and rely solely on willpower to deal with cravings and bad habits, but as we’ve all experienced, the willpower usually fades as time goes on.

And once the willpower fades it’s very difficult to maintain your new behaviors.

Luckily, there are much more effective ways to change your behaviors than willpower and they all start with being able to motivate yourself (I’ll show you how in a moment).

But first, I want to finish by making clear that I am not unappreciative of doctors. In fact, I’m super thankful for everything they do and am not blaming them in any way.

The bigger point I want to make is that our healthcare system is currently not set up to help you achieve the level of health you want and deserve. You need to accept that it’s your responsibility to find the strategies and support you need to take control of your weight because no one is going to do it for you.

Now if you want to experience how much easier it is to lose weight when you’re motivated, then I have a gift for you. It’s called the Motivation Machine

]]> https://programyourselfthin.com/3-things-your-doctor-doesnt-tell-you-about-losing-weight/feed/ 0 Serving Sizes vs Reality of Common Foods https://programyourselfthin.com/serving-sizes-vs-reality/ https://programyourselfthin.com/serving-sizes-vs-reality/#comments Sat, 18 Oct 2014 13:24:07 +0000 http://programyourselfthin.com/blog/?p=1454 When people wonder why they’re not losing weight, the most common reason is that they’re eating more than they realize. And it’s no wonder considering what most of us think serving sizes are. We literally have to de-hypnotize ourselves to be able to realize how much we’re eating and this video does just that.

]]> https://programyourselfthin.com/serving-sizes-vs-reality/feed/ 1 Featured Video: What’s Wrong with What We Eat https://programyourselfthin.com/featured-video-whats-wrong-with-what-we-eat/ https://programyourselfthin.com/featured-video-whats-wrong-with-what-we-eat/#respond Fri, 04 Jul 2014 08:07:53 +0000 http://www.programyourselfthin.com/blog/?p=14 What We Eat

Mark Bittman talks about what’s wrong with the way we eat now. Very enlightening video (20:34)

In this fiery and funny talk, New York Times food writer Mark Bittman weighs in on what’s wrong with the way we eat now (too much meat, too few plants; too much fast food, too little home cooking), and why it’s putting the entire planet at risk.

]]> https://programyourselfthin.com/featured-video-whats-wrong-with-what-we-eat/feed/ 0 Shocking Obesity Information https://programyourselfthin.com/shocking-obesity-information/ https://programyourselfthin.com/shocking-obesity-information/#respond Tue, 16 Feb 2010 03:12:46 +0000 http://www.programyourselfthin.com/blog/?p=19 Jamie Oliver is transforming the way we feed ourselves, and our children. Sharing powerful stories from his anti-obesity project in Huntington, W. Va., TED Prize winner Jamie Oliver makes the case for an all-out assault on our ignorance of food.

]]> https://programyourselfthin.com/shocking-obesity-information/feed/ 0 The Biggest Exercise Mistake https://programyourselfthin.com/the-biggest-exercise-mistake/ https://programyourselfthin.com/the-biggest-exercise-mistake/#respond Thu, 07 Aug 2008 17:40:03 +0000 http://www.thenewthinme.com/?p=107 The following is an excerpt from an Elite Body interview I did with Shawn Phillips, author of Strength For Life…

Jim:    What are some of the biggest mistakes people make when it comes to exercising?

Shawn:    I think the biggest mistake people make in their fitness conditioning and certainly strength training is that they check their mind at the door. They put their work clothes in the locker. They leave their brain there and their mind. They walk into the gym and they go through motions. Going through the motions because it’s an obligatory . . . I’m obligated. I’m supposed to work out. But they don’t vest themselves; integrate themselves and become fully present to it.

When you are there; when your mind is driving your muscles; not coming along like a dog on a leash; you have a more effective workout. Your results are better.

Jim:    That’s a big difference. I can relate to that because I lot of the changes I made in my body happened through yoga and it happened naturally. It was the first time I’d ever learned to exercise that way, I’d never learned how to go inside and begin to really connect with my body until I began doing yoga and martial arts. I’d never heard of that.

So what I like about what you’re doing I think is so valuable for everyone listening here is to begin thinking about working out and exercising in a whole new way.

Shawn:    I’m going to ask you; you did those things because they were good for you, but did you also enjoy them?

Jim:    I’ll tell you what; well martial arts was good for a little while and then I hit a point where I was “What am I doing this for?” So that kind of fell away. Yoga was something . . . because I wanted to change my body and I started going to the gym. I’d go to the gym and go to the gym and it just wasn’t right for me partly because I was doing it wrong at the time and I didn’t realize it. Like you were saying, it was like I was checking my mind at the door and just going through the movements.
I wasn’t getting the results that I wanted and just like you said, as I moved into yoga, all of a sudden that was the first time I’d ever really done exercising that I enjoyed. I literally got addicted to it. It had nothing to do with willpower, I had to do it.

Shawn:    You’re talking mastery right there Jim. I love that conversation. You talked a little about the motivation, but that’s it. You are identifying the actual steps to mastery which is moving from “I have to do this thing” into something I enjoy doing and into where it’s a part of my life.

I understand that people can only willpower themselves for so long. If it’s not something you enjoy; if it doesn’t add time, energy and vitality to your life; if it’s not an asset and it’s just something I’m doing because I need to like balancing my checkbook, it will fall away or you’ll wait for your doctor to force you to.

I want to point out that your discussion about the yoga led right into what I wanted to point at which is that the whole aspect of “I enjoy it” . . . we enjoy anything that we are very present to.

Jim:    That’s great and again sometimes people just say “Okay, this is what I’m going to do” where they’d almost be better off if they took a step back and said “What’s a plan that I could do forever as opposed to the plan to get the instant results in a month that’s not sustainable?” It’s a whole different approach to it.

Shawn:    Creating a reason and it’s that “What am I moving towards and what am I becoming.” When you talk about motivation, I say fitness is something you do. Strength is a way of being. When you become . . . when you stop doing fitness and start being fit; start being strong; that is your life and no longer something you just go through the motions on.

]]> https://programyourselfthin.com/the-biggest-exercise-mistake/feed/ 0 3 Causes of Weight Loss Frustration https://programyourselfthin.com/3-causes-of-weight-loss-frustration/ https://programyourselfthin.com/3-causes-of-weight-loss-frustration/#comments Tue, 26 Feb 2008 21:34:54 +0000 http://www.thenewthinme.com/3-causes-of-weight-loss-frustration/ Weight Loss FrustrationHave you ever wondered why is it that others seem to be losing weight easily while you are having great difficulty in losing just a few pounds? Have you ever wondered what is wrong with you? In this article I’ll tell you about the three main reasons why you may not be losing weight the way you should!

1. Don’t treat yourself to fatty foods after exercise: Do you think that since you have exercised all day long, you can afford to indulge in some heavy, fatty foods? If so then you are completely wrong! There are some people who think this way and they treat themselves to tasty, calorie-rich foods after a long exercise schedule. If you do this it will sabotage all your weight loss efforts, and you will gain more weight than you had lost! You should be self disciplined enough to maintain the routine of diet and exercise everyday, as this is the best and recommended way to lose weight fast.

2. Don’t rest the day after exercise: Some people make the mistake of doing workouts for a long time for one day and then resting on the very next day. They seem to harbor the misconception that if they exercise too hard one day and then rest on another, it won’t have any negative impact on their health. However, it is a pretty wrong assumption. Exercising is meaningless if you workout one day and then rest on the very next day. A better idea is to workout for short periods of time every day; this way you won’t get very tired and you would be able to burn calories everyday!

3. If you don’t want to exercise, then walk: It is not possible for everybody to workout all the time. If this is you, then there are other ways to burn the fat, one of them being walking. You are perhaps not aware of the fact that waking can help you lose a lot of weight, especially if you walk regularly. Don’t sit all day on your couch; instead get off and take your dog or friend along with you and walk a mile or two. If you neither have a friend nor dog, just take out your cell phone and chat with your buddies while walking. This would make walking a breeze and before you even realize, you would have completed walking a couple of miles!

Losing weight is not really that hard if you follow the above rules!

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