Health Tips

Setting Fitness Goals

February 23, 2008
By J White

Setting fitness goals is paramount for you to burn fat. It’s depressing though that so many people fail to reach their goals of burning fat. Try as they may, they just can’t seem to stick to their diet and exercise program. If you happen to fall into that category, it’s probably has to do with something we all take for granted: our belief system.

Our belief system is the core beliefs and ideas we hold about our ourselves and the world around us. When our belief system is an conflict with our goals, failure is almost always certain. To overcome this dilemma, you’re going to have to change your core beliefs about dieting and exercise if you want your future efforts to be successful.

Many out there may be asking yourself why do I need to take time to consider my core beliefs when it comes to setting fitnss goals. Shouldn’t the information on exercise and dieting found on this website and my other sources be sufficient to help me set my goals to burn the fat and keep it off?

The answer to that question is yes if follow through on the information listed here and make it a permanent part of your life. But regrettably many of us don’t. How did I come to you that conclusion?

Well according to many dieting studies scores of us will go through several different diets throughout our lives, losing some weight and then putting it back on plus some. If those seeking to lose weight had also worked on changing their core beliefs about dieting and exercise, their results would probably have been much different, thus ending that yo-yo dieting cycle.

So if you’re having trouble staying away from those rich desserts or keep putting off going to the gym or performing your power walk in the afternoon, consider working on changing your beliefs as well as your diet. Your core beliefs control every feeling, every action or inaction in your life and they are at the heart of what drives us. Simply put, you are what you think and believe.

For the most part these controlling core beliefs are unconscious driving forces created from the meaning we gave to past experiences. In most circumstances, we are oblivious to their presence. Establishing new core beliefs about eating and exercising is essential if you want to burn away that unsightly fat.

So how can we effectively change our beliefs?

You could spend thousands of dollars on therapy trying to root out the causes for many of the things you do or you could use a form of psychology know as neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) whose primary focus is to help establish, shift or transform many of your deeply-held beliefs.

NLP deals with interpersonal communication based on the study of language and communication as agents for personal change. It was created by Richard Bandler and John Grindler who studied three successful psychotherapist to try and determine why they were more successful than their peers. In their study they discovered many patterns evolved relating to how an individual thinks, communicates and constructs meaning about him or herself and the surrounding world.

To illustrate, picture a food you love to eat and notice where it is in your mind. Is it in the back front middle, etc. ? Now picture a food you strongly dislike and notice where this is in your mind. Now, take the food you dislike and move it to the same place as the food you love. If you’re like most people, you’re can’t do it our you at least find it very troubling in doing so.

This is one reason why we find replacing old behavior with new behavior so difficult. We have unconsciously assigned it a place in our mind that says to us that this is something we really don’t like or want to do. Consciously you’re telling yourself you want to change but subconsciously your mind is yelling to you, NO! NO! NO!

This is just one of the many aspects of NLP used to gain insight in human behavior. And in turn, this and other methods can also be used as a method to create lasting behavioral and emotional change.

For instance NLP is full of thought patterns that help deal with addressing unwanted behavior. One for example is called the Swish pattern. To administer it, first find a place that you can relax undisturbed. Next close your eyes and take several deep breathes and let each out slowly to relax yourself. Now picture in your mind’s eye either a behavior you dislike or a situation that brings about some anxiety. Make the picture as vivid as possible and notice the colors and if there are any sounds, smells or tactile impressions. Once you have it, dwell on it for no more than a minute. Let’s call this image 1.

Next, picture in your mind how you like to behave or how you would like the situation to go. Make the details such that they spur deep positive feelings. Make this picture as lifelike as possible noticing the colors, texture of the objects if any and the sounds or smells if they are also present. Dwell on these things for a minute of two and put them to the side. We’ll call this Image 2.

Now take several deep breaths and picture in your mind Image 1. Next quickly, saying the word “SWISH”, visualize Image 1 and replace it quickly with Image 2. Repeat this ten or more times. When you think about Image 1 the next time, the unpleasantness of the image should have subsided substantially and in most cases disappeared.

What this process is designed to do is override those unpleasant feeling associated with Image 1 with positive feeling associated with Image 2. As a result you have “programmed” your mind to react differently when you think about the previously emotionally troubling image, Image 1. This technique can be used in situations such as public speaking, going on interviews, improving sports performance, etc.

As I mentioned this is just one of the many patterns and tools that NLP offers to help create change in your life. These patterns and tools are the basis for many of the self-help seminars people attended throughout the world and if your company ever brought someone in to increase moral or to encourage better workplace attitudes, that person was probably using some of the techniques taught in NLP.

The most famous of these practitioners of NLP is probably Tony Robbins. Even though he doesn’t market his programs as NLP, many of the techniques he is promoting to create personal change is based on NLP. Another notable practitioner in the field that is worth mentioning is Chris Howard. Their seminars and cds can cost several hundreds and even thousands of dollars.

In searching the internet for a more cost efficient alternative I came across Colin Smith.
In his tapes, he discusses the Swish Pattern and many other NLP techniques used to make life changes such as dealing with phobias, raising your self-esteem, helping to unlock your creativity and yes, setting fitness goals.

And for less than fifty dollars, it’s a great deal when compared to those other programs and most importantly you get the much of the same information covered in those more expensive packages.

Regardless of how you decide to go about changing your core beliefs to help increase your chances of being successful at burning fat, the important thing is to make sure you include this element in your overall plan. It may be the difference from you getting it right the this time or going on a roller coaster ride of weight loss.

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