Change the channel for fat loss

We are going to be a bit brave here and ask you some simple questions:

Aren’t you a bit sick of all the “get slim quick” and “instant fat loss” stuff?

Aren’t you just tired of reading about how if you just do one thing each day you will shed a stone in a week?

How you can regain your slim figure by doing 4 minutes of exercise a day?…and on it goes.

And yes you may be getting sick of me talking about my take on losing belly fat. And maybe all the mind stuff I talk about occasionally.

Because let’s face it….

If you still have belly fat that you don’t want, everything sounds like it’s YOUR fault. You have been eating the WRONG things and doing the WRONG things…and I bet that you probably think you will “never ever” lose belly fat…

Between all the fads and the advice and your own little voice in your head…you have pretty much told yourself that you can’t lose those last inches of fat.“Look,” the voice says “you do enough, you’re too old to be changing…face it you are never going to lose that fat”.

Well…I’ll tell you a little secret.

Fat loss secret

That voice is RIGHT.

Yep. That voice that tells you that are not going to lose fat, you just have to face it….well it is bang on, to the point, 100% correct.

You are NOT going to lose fat.….Now take a moment while we explain this.

That voice, or more exactly, that part of you, is simply repeating what you have been training yourself to do and say over the years.

So you may be active and go to the gym. You eat pretty healthily and really try and “keep fit and in shape”…but you have layers of belly fat…or maybe just an annoying inch.You try and try and try but the reality is always there.

So you tell yourself it’s the way it is. You start to believe it…and then when you ask yourself for a different answer, what do you hear?

Exactly. 

An echo of what you have been telling yourself.

So what do you do to change it?

Well the first thing you do is listen to a story about horses!

The Psychology of Persuasion

In his fantastic and highly recommended book, “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion”, Robert Cialdini talks about a concept called Commitment and Consistency. And to do this he tells the story about how researchers did a test at a horse racing track.

Basically they asked a load of people before a race how confident they were that their horse was going to win. People were mostly tentative and unsure. But the minute they had placed money on it, they were much more confident and assured…

Even though nothing had changed!

We all have a tendency to try and justify our decisions so as to appear consistent with our story. Even if this means making up a completely new one on the spot and then going with this like the people at the racetrack.

So if you have been telling yourself all this time that “my belly fat is just the way it is” and “yeah yeah all these fat loss programs only work on those people with the right genetics…”

Then this is your story.

And your brain just accepts it and repeats is back to you every time you ask. And you feel, well disappointed but justified with that position, don’t you? Being right about things like that?

Knowing that yes you are one of those people who just won’t lose their belly fat…but then that’s the way it is.Now, you may be thinking: hold on a minute! I’ve been trying for years to lose fat and stay healthy. I’ve been busting my gut trying to get slimmer…

And you are correct. You have.

So here is our only take on this:

What you think you are doing is most probably not what you are ACTUALLY doing.

You have most probably been telling yourself a story but not actually recording the facts.

• Do you make an exercise log?
• A food log?
• Do you plan your exercises?
• Do you learn to portion your food in a way that is manageable and not sporadic?
• Or do you simply eat healthy enough and have the odd snack here and there…as a little treat?

Well there is a difference between a “little treat” that you have planned once a week…and one that you have every day?

You see, what I came to realise myself is that everyday you walk around, you only get to make a handful of meaningful decisions. The rest is you in autopilot.

But that autopilot wasn’t always there. It was programmed by years of you telling yourself things that became your story and it was programmed with all these habits that reinforced that.

So if you are ever going to have a chance at losing fat you first have to stop repeating the story in your head. You have to stop saying “Fat Loss Yeah Yeah..tell me something new”….

And actually tell yourself something new.

Like:

“If I eat 4 times a day I will manage my blood sugar better. I want to take responsibility for my fat loss”

“This story in my head is just programming. I am going to write a new one. I can lose my fat.”

“I am for the most part not to blame for having fat. I have just built up bad habits. But I am going to take responsibility. I am going to change these habits, starting today by planning my next week’s exercise”

Keep doing this and that story and your body will change.

But I’ll tell you this. It is NOT as easy as it seems when you first do it, but pretty quickly you start to get into it….And to help you out, well you know I have a book about this.

If you ever needed a constant urging and supporting voice keeping your going it’s me in this book.I don’t really care it you get sick of reading it! As long as you keep on track for at least 90 days to really bed in the habits…