Its All In The Mind

“So, tell me what you want, what you really really want…” The Spice Girls told us if we really want, we have to give. And thats exactly my sentiments for this article. If you really really want something, say, a six-pack, then you have to give something. What do you have to give? Hard work. Why do you have to give it? Because you wanna six-pack. Do you really want it? No, you really REALLY want it. And how are you going to give it? You’re going to start with your mind.

You’ve just walked past a mirror. You do one of those double-looks because you don’t really recognise the person you just saw. It looked a littled like you, but 20 years old and twice the size. “Is that really me?” You go back for a closer look and find that it is indeed, you. Something has just happened in your mind. You’ve realised what you look like. You don’t like it. You suddenly start planning what you’re going to do to change.

You might not realise what you’ve just thought about, but it happened. A seed was planted and took root. Now, in your mind, you look nothing like you want to look. You’ve suddenly made a decision to change whether you realise it or not.

While that decision was subconscious, the next has to be conscious. You have to choose to act on that initial decision. Yes you want to change, but are you prepared to fight with everything you have to get what you’re aiming for? Well, if you aren’t, then stop reading. No weight loss or muscle gain will happen if you are not prepared to work for it. I’m afraid nothing comes easy.

It is all in the mind. Your mind. If you want change, then you have to do something about it. If you don’t do anything, nothing will change. Every day you need to remind yourself of your goals. When you wake up, repeat your goal aloud. When you go to sleep, repeat your goal.

Your goal needs to be on the forefront of your mind every day. Especially at meal times. You need to be visualizing your goal in order for it to be accomplished! Sound wishy washy? Well maybe, but if you don’t really really want it and don’t really really work for it, then you really really aren’t going to get it!

So let this be a motivational tool for you. Make yourself a goal. Write it down and put it by your bed. Put it on your bathroom mirror, your steering wheel, your cell phone. Have your goal scroll across your computer screen when its on standby. Memorise it and repeat it day after day until you reach that goal. If its well and truly in your mind, then you will be a winner, no matter the goal!

Popularity: 1% [?]

“Mirror, Mirror, On The Wall, Why Haven’t I Made Any Progress?”

Although Garfield will say bathroom scales are the worst enemy, there are many who will argue that the bathroom mirror is more of an enemy.  As the saying goes, “the mirror doesn’t lie” or does it?

Mirrors can be a more reliable way to track progress than the bathroom scales

A person can weight more than they did a month ago and yet look slimmer and harder than they did when they weighed less.  The main reason for this is rather simple.  Fat, being less dense, weighs less than muscle.  So if you lose body fat but gain muscle at the same time you can weight the same (or sometimes more than you did before) and yet look and feel better.  So if all you do to track your progress is measure your weight on the scales, you may be getting quite the wrong picture of things.  Having a look in the mirror may actually be a better way to see if you’ve been making progress.

Unfortunately although our mirrors might be accurately portraying the way we look, our interpretation of our reflections are usually skewed due to a number of factors such as:

Our bad photographic memory
If you put a frog in a pot of cold water and put the pot over a fire the frog will be oblivious to the fact that it is being boiled alive because it can’t tell the the water is slowly changing from cold to very hot.  This is similar to the way we look at ourselves in the mirror.  We don’t actually realise that what we are seeing today is different to what we were seeing 3 months ago.

Lighting and angles
Lighting in a lot of bathrooms can be quite unnatural (so that you can clearly see yourself).  In the real world lighting is usually a lot kinder on our appearance.  Also (and probably more of a problem than lighting), the angles in which we can see ourselves in the mirror are limited to, well, one angle – straight ahead.  It is very hard to get a good view of yourself side on, and even harder to see the back view!

Our harsh self-criticism
You will usually find that your most harshest critic is yourself.  It is so easy to look into the mirror and immediately push yourself down.  Sometimes this is due to self esteem issues, more often than not however, it is done subconsciously because one is so desperate for change they are withholding any credit to force themselves to try even harder.

It is for these reasons that I personally don’t recommend judging results by looking in the mirror.

A much better solution to the bathroom mirror is before & after pictures.  Get a friend to take a photo from front on, side on and your back, and then do some follow up photos in a few months time.  If you’re too self-conscious you can just use a self-timer in order to have the picture taken, but beware of the whole ’self-criticism’ thing.  It is better for a friend or relative to judge the before/after photos than yourself.

One last thing, I don’t by any means say you should completely avoid looking in the mirror.  Taking a look in the mirror can be a great confidence and motivational boost.  What is important is that we don’t use what we see in the mirror to measure and track our results.

Popularity: 1% [?]