Thursday, September 5, 2013

I Want To Lose Weight But I Am Just Too Lazy!

Then there is not much I can do for you. Being healthy doesn't have to be hard, but if you aren't willing to take action and put in any effort well then clearly your health is not a priority for you. For me to convince you means I care more about your health than you do.



I can't tell you why you should get fit and healthy. If you don't understand why, I strongly urge you to learn more. If you are not happy with the way things are and you want to feel better about yourself and have more energy, then doesn't it make sense to find out how?

If you do care about your health and are ready to take action I can assure you the techniques that I share with people show that getting fit and losing weight doesn't have to be hard or overwhelming, but before you get into the details of what you can do turn your health around, you need to get a handle on what has been stopping you in the past.

If the first thing that comes to mind is that you are too lazy, it actually may not be the case. From my experience I have found that it's not really laziness that holds people back, it is usually other beliefs and values that stops people from achieving their health goals.

Here is an exercise I highly recommend in helping you uncover what has really been holding you back.

Answer the following questions:
  •     What's been stopping you from achieving your health goals?
  •     What is the belief that supports you into thinking this?What is the benefit of believing that belief?
  •     How else can you still receive that benefit without having to believe that belief? (Hint: it's usually the opposite of that belief)
  •     What things can you can do today to support this new belief?
To help you understand how to answer these questions, here are responses a client of mine shared with me when I asked them the same questions:

1. What's been stopping you from achieving your health goals?

I want to start getting more active but:
  •     I can't find the time to do it
  •     I don't want to wake up early
  •     I am too busy
  •     I feel too tired   
  •  I just can't get the motivation to get started

2. What is the benefit of believing these things?

  •     That I can continue to be lazy and not be active
  •     That I can't get fit and lose weight so I get to be lazy and do relaxing things instead like sleeping in, watching tv and doing nothing
  •     That I can continue to eat whatever I want because I can't lose weight anyway so if I am going to be fat, I might as well eat what I want
  •     I don't have to feel the pain because when I go walking, my ankles and knees get sore
  •     I get to relax on the couch

3. What does this tell you?

I associate exercising and being active with not being able to relax, being painful and not being able to enjoy the foods I love. I need to think of ways that allows me to experience all those things while still allowing myself to be physically active.

4. How else you can still experience the same benefits in question 5, without believing the things in question 3?

  •     To relax I can do meditation, enjoy a cup of tea on the porch, read a book and listen to soothing music
  •     To be able to continue to eat what I want - I can apply the principles of Empowered Eating where I can eat what I want but only when I really feel like it and I honour my hunger
  •     To avoid feeling pain, I need to start off on smaller walks to get my body used to walking. I can ask a friend to go walking with me so it can be fun and I can enjoy the company
  •     To be lazy I can schedule in time to do nothing and just be lazy but not feel guilty. That way I can still be active and make time to be lazy and not allow my lazy time to eat into my active time.

5. What things can you do today to support this new belief?

  •     I am going to start that novel that has been sitting on my shelf waiting to be read. I will allocate 20 mins everyday to read in the evening to help me wind down for the evening.
  •     I will crack open my workout dvd 6.30am tomorrow morning - NO EXCUSES!

As you can see from this example:

  • This person associated being active as being something that would stop her from having lazy time, being relaxed and eating whatever she wanted. By thinking of other ways that would address these fears and still honouring the benefits of not being active, we have invited this person to be able to still make room to be active while giving time to be relax, be lazy, enjoy her foods and avoid pain.

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