The Affirmation Advantage For Weight Loss

By EMMETT L. HOLBROOK

Are you ready to get serious about losing weight?

You’ve likely found a great weight loss plan.  And you’re all up to date on the best nutritional practices.  Just as you’re confident about the steps you need to take to achieve your weight loss goal.But what happens when you’re alone and you start to crave something that you know will set you back?
Regardless of which weight loss plan you’re using, in the end it all comes down to you.  In that moment of vulnerability it’s about your will power, your mental preparedness.  The question is, will you be ready to meet the challenge?

The Affirmation Advantage gives you the tools to fight the mental weight loss battle and win!  These are proven tools that will support your weight loss efforts. You’ll learn about reprogramming your mind for successful weight loss.  You’ll be given the secret of how to pick yourself up and move on after you’ve been knocked down.

Give yourself every chance to finally lose the weight by having the tools to win the mental battle, buy The Affirmation Advantage For Weight Loss.

• Language: English
• Publisher: DunnAndDunegan
• Release date: Apr 23, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386372318

Book preview

I HAVE A DIET, BUT IT’S JUST NOT WORKING

Which weight loss plan are you following?

Atkins? Paleo? Weight Watchers? Jenny Craig?

Regardless of which plan you follow, they all generally leave one large gap.

What gap?

Think about that moment when you’re in front of your tv, nestled on your couch and your mind begins to wander. It starts to think about how many calories or points that you’ve got left for the day. It takes inventory of what’s in your fridge and what’s in your cupboards. You start to think, well I could go over a little bit tonight and then walk it off tomorrow.

And more often than not you settle on something that you need-IMMEDIATELY. Could be cookies. Could be cake. Could be potato chips. Some kind of chocolate perhaps. It’ll certainly be something that celery sticks or baby carrots can’t satisfy.

And at that moment you’ll be all alone.

No Dr. Atkins. No Jenny. Just you and your will power against your cravings. Fighting that same mental battle that you’ve fought everyday. And it’ll be up to you to decide.

Losing weight is like competing in a sport. There are rules-and everyone knows what they are. There are objectives (i.e. beating an opponent or losing weight). And of course, everyone is keeping score.

Every athlete knows that there are three parts to the sport they play. There’s the physical part that takes place on the field of competition. The intellectual part where decisions are made based on practiced strategies and tactics as well as scouting reports on the competition. And the mental part, the part that reporters often call ‘mental toughness’-the ability to face adversity and maintain confidence.

This last part is where affirmations play a part. But they are useless unless you do the physical and intellectual work necessary to achieve your victory.

Many of us want to lose weight and get in better shape. Perhaps you're concerned about your health and you’ve made the decision to take better care of yourself. Are there things you could be doing to be healthier? If so, you're not alone.

When you choose the right foods and exercise, you know you'll look and feel better, reduce your stress levels, sleep more soundly, have more energy, and enjoy better health. Often, though, making the right choices isn't as easy as it sounds, is it? The good news is that there are some simple things you can do to help make positive choices and achieve the better health you want.

If your alarm clock goes off 45 minutes earlier in the morning for your daily workout before heading into the office, how would you react? Would you respond negatively and tell yourself that skipping one day won't hurt, or even that exercise is pointless?

When you pass that fast food store with those ninety-nine cent burgers and you're low on time and big on hunger, what choice do you usually make? Eating healthier isn't always as easy as picking up convenient, greasy foods. But would you go the extra mile for a healthy meal?

What about sleep? In addition to exercising and eating right, you also need to get enough sleep to achieve your weight loss goals. When you don't sleep well, you'll be less inclined to make healthy food and exercise decisions. Sleeping well helps you become more energetic and passionate about all things in your life, including your commitment to your health.

In those moments when you feel weak and you don't want to eat right, get enough sleep, or exercise, affirmations targeting your health can be just what you need to help you make the healthy choice.

Affirmations are positive statements that replace the negative thought processes in your mind or provide a safety net when you hit a roadblock or even a setback. When you start to talk yourself out of exercising, a negative affirmation is being repeated in your mind-an affirmation that says I can't do it. So if a negative affirmation works, why can't a positive one?

When you're about to choose junk food instead of the good stuff, repeating an affirmation aloud or just to yourself, will remind you of your desire to be healthier and help you become more consciously and subconsciously aware of your healthy living goals.

For example, you can say, I allow my body to receive enough rest and exercise, or The more I take care of myself, the better I feel. Using statements like these will give you that gentle push you need when you feel inclined to be pessimistic.

Strive to repeat healthy living affirmations to yourself several times each day and whenever you need encouragement. It will take a bit of time, but, soon enough, you'll find yourself making healthy decisions more and more often.

And the more often you choose the healthy lifestyle you desire, the better you'll feel, both physically and mentally. Make the commitment to your health by incorporating healthy living affirmations into your daily routine today.

In this book, I will be going over how self-affirmation combined with daily positive affirmations will help you meet the mental challenges that go along with the goal of losing weight.

How will this book help you?

You will learn that that what you are hearing from others as well as from yourself can undermine your weight loss goal; and how to turn this around.

You will learn about how self-affirmations will enhance your ability to deal with the mental challenges of losing weight; and how to create your own self-affirmation that will do just that;

You will learn about how daily positive affirmations can help in your day-to-day efforts to make the right choices during your weight loss period and beyond; and how to create an effective positive affirmation for daily motivation.

This book will give you the tools you’ll need to support your eating and fitness efforts. However, there are no diet or workout tips. Everything you learn in this book is meant to help you deal with the part-arguably the most important part-of weight loss that occurs between your ears.

THE MIND-MOUTH CONNECTION

If you are of a self-deprecating nature, like myself, when you read the title of this section, you may have thought: Yep, when I see a piece of chocolate cake, my mind tells me I want it, and the next thing I know, it’s in my mouth .

---

We know that our actions begin in our thoughts.

---

I come from a family that has a history of what psychiatrists might call a problem with impulse suppression. In my case, this trait led to a lifetime of overeating. So we all share the same issue and I know many of the same things that you know.

---

And one of the things that I do know is that there was never a time in my whole life that I needed a bag of chips. Yet there were many occasions when I found myself emptying a full family-size bag of chips in one sitting and often in less than an hour.

---

From the moment that I’d convinced myself that I needed that bag of chips to the remorseful hours afterward, I went over all of the other things I knew as well, such as:

---

I DID NOT need that bags of chips;

I DID NOT need to eat the whole bag;

I DID NOT need to eat them as quickly as I did;

Had I not eaten them as quickly as I did, I probably wouldn’t have finished the whole bag;

The choice of potato chips as a snack was not a good one and that better choices were easily available.

---

Anyone who has overeating problem knows more about a proper diet than the average person. Because we have to know. Yet from time to time, we’ll make these bad choices. And we do it because there’s something in the back of our heads that first nudges at us and eventually screams at us:

---

"YOU NEED A BAG OF POTATO CHIPS!"

---

And at some point you actually say the words, I need a bag of potato chips. After that it usually isn’t long until you find yourself on your couch scratching at the bottom of a potato chip bag.

---

That’s when a different monologue starts up. Again coming from the inner reaches of your head. And it’s along the lines of:

---

You’re such an idiot!

You’re so weak.

You’re always going to be overweight!

You’ll never be fit!

---

Most of us have had this happen. And most of us know what happens next. Our negative self-talk undermines our goal of losing weight and the next thing we know, we’re digging around in our closet for those clothes that fit before we had any weight loss. Or worse, we go to the store to find clothes that we can fit into for now.

---

And then there’s more negative self-talk. And likely more weight gain.

---

Studies have shown that both pessimism and optimism are fueled by our negative or positive self-talk. These same studies have found that people who are pessimistic are less able to effectively manage stress. And proper stress management is crucial in dealing with health issues such as obesity and weight loss.

---

Of course the other problem with negative self-talk is that it can be self-fulfilling. I’m reminded of the story of the baseball pitcher who was in the stereotypical situation. Bottom of the ninth. His team up by one run. Runner on first with the home run hitting right-fielder coming to the plate. The pitching coach slowly walks out to the mound and reminds his pitcher about the homer he served up to this same batter a few innings back and leaves him with the words, "And remember, don’t let this guy hit a home run off of