Quote:
Originally Posted by dragonwoman64
On the other side of that coin, I wonder what I get out of being heavy. I can't help thinking there is something powerful I get out of it or I wouldn't be holding on to the weight for so long. It's comfortable, it's familiar, it protects me...maybe stuff like that.
I hear you. What DO we get out of being fat? Maybe something as simple as identity. It has become a part of who we are. The language we use regarding our attempts to get healthier are in themselves "negative" too when you think about it. "losing weight". Who wants to be a "loser?" When in most of our regular life is "losing" considered a good thing?
Someone sees you and they say "You've lost weight". Does that sound like a compliment? Say they saw you and said "I hear you lost your big game yesterday..." is that a compliment? No it is pointing out your "failure". Losing weight isn't a failure of course, but a success. It just doesn't sound that way.
I was listening to some motivational tapes one time by a speaker named Brian Tracy. He had done a lot of research into various ways of looking at life, and one of the things he said that I thought was interesting is that the subconscious mind can't process a "negative". That if you want to accomplish anything you can program your subconscious mind by using "affirmations" But these affirmations can't be worded in negative words. For instance you can't say "I don't smoke any more". Mind doesn't get it. You can say "I am smoke free" or "I am a non smoker".
I think one way of helping ourselves to "lose" weight is to drop the word lose. Think instead about what we are gaining. "I am gaining a better body" or "I am gaining a healthier, stronger body". "I only eat good nutritious healthy delicious food."
I think for me? I don't want to "lose" a part of who I am. That sounds very extreme and drastic, even knowing that it is a part of me that is only excess and unneeded stored fuel. My fat is a part of me. Maybe I don't LIKE being fat, but when I'm thinking about how I must "lose" it, it is demotivating. Gaining more health, gaining more ability to move pain free, gaining strength? Those things sound really good.
A lot of times it is just a matter of how we think about it. To me "losing" weight equates to "losing" the ability to eat all the things I love. That is an unbalanced and stupid thought process that we should be able to overcome. Maybe just a mind set change would make the difference.
A thought just occurred to me. Since language is so powerful and since the language we use here is "losing", it makes me wonder what other cultures call it in their language. I was reading a book about how "French women don't get fat". One of the things she described was a lady enjoying her particular little favorite sweet and calling it (in French) "my tiny adorable sin".
Her point was that only in French would a sin be called both "adorable" and "tiny". I wonder how they refer to removing a few pounds. It could be that the language makes a lot of the difference.