The Glycemic Index Diet for Dummies (27 page)
Having no time for finding out about and trying new changes
Okay, so you get that you need a positive mindset to stay on track, but how exactly do you do that? Follow these three simple steps:
1. Create a vision.
2. Turn that vision into an affirmation.
3. Focus on using positive language in all situations.
The following sections cover each of these steps in more detail to help you put them together to create your own positive mindset about your new low-glycemic lifestyle.
Creating your vision
The first step to creating a positive mindset is to come up with your long-term goal, which I like to call your vision. Your
vision
is how you see the big picture, your plan that always serves to motivate you. Visions motivate because they're your ultimate desires of how you want to see your life play out. After all, you have to know where you're going before you can take the first steps to get there.
To create your vision, first think of some internal reasons why you want to lose weight and why you want to follow a low-glycemic diet in particular.
Internal reasons
are things that are life changing, such as improved health or becoming more active with your family and friends. Your internal goal calls on you to live your best life.
Even though weight loss is the top priority in your mind, when your goals are simply to lose weight or fit into a certain size, they aren't meaningful enough to help you through challenges. How the weight loss changes your life,
not your waistline, is what's meaningful.
So instead of thinking about your ideal body weight, think about what you want your ideal body to be. Other than sizes and numbers on the scale, what types of changes do you want to see by following a low-glycemic diet? Perhaps you'll increase your energy throughout the day, orybe your new diet will help you feel strong and vital and keep you healthy and vibrant. Many people choose a low-glycemic diet because of specific health issues, so perhaps you expect a low-glycemic diet to help you get your blood sugar under control, decrease inflammation, or even aid with fertility (depending on your personal circumstances).
Take some time to create your vision. The more excited you are about your inner picture, the more of an active role you'll take toward your weight-loss goals. Here's a sample that illustrates how you can weave your internal reasons into your vision:
My vision is to lose enough weight so I can lower my blood pressure and be able to have the endurance and energy to join my family members on their annual backpacking trip so I can experience new adventures in my life. I want to feel comfortable, fit, and energetic.
To overcome the day-to-day obstacles, your vision must be greater than your challenges.
These obstacles mask themselves as "no time," "the kids," "my job," and the like. They're all the "yeah, buts . . ." that come up for every single person. That doesn't mean these obstacles aren't real. On the contrary, they're very real. But when you have an inspiring vision, it's powerful enough to motivate you to get around these obstacles. People who've lost weight and kept it off have at least one strong internal reason for losing weight — and that reason drives their vision.
Turning your vision into an affirma
tion
Changing your vision into a positive affirmation adds even more power to your mindset. A
positive affirmation
is a statement that highlights your strengths, talents, and skills.
Powerful visions can keep you motivated
Ann is a client of mine who has a fairly hectic life: full-time working mother of two children and primary bread winner in her family (on a 100-percent-commisision job, no less). Health-wise, she has high cholesterol, Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, and is always struggling to lose 20 pounds. Life simply gets in the way, causing her food choices to become less conscious and her exercise to decline.
Ann always wanted to lose weight, but she consistently focused on the number on the scale or the size of her clothes rather than an internal reason. Consequently, she'd do great for a few weeks and then slide back into her old habits when challenges arose. That was the pattern until Ann set a vision to do a major hike/climb with her husband, who often took these trips with his male friends. Ann felt like she missed out on seeing some amazing things simply because the climb seemed too physically challenging for her.
Instead of focusing on losing weight, Ann began to focus on training for her trip, which made for a big shift in her motivation. Ann became very lean and muscular and lowered her cholesterol to normal limits. He vision also helped her find ways around her various obstacles. Instead of running through a fast-food restaurant while taking the kids to their various sports, she found quick meals they could eat before getting in the car. Instead of skipping breakfast in the morning, she brought all the fixings to work so she could make it there. She even began to wake up at 5:30 a.m. to get in her exercise because there was no other time of day that she could do it. The moral of Ann's story? When you have a powerful vision, it helps you stay motivated and enables you to find solutions for the obstacles that come up in daily life.
When creating your affirmation, make sure it's in the present tense. There are two reasons for this:
Your natural thoughts, positive or negative, occur in the present tense. For example, "I struggle with exercise," "I love eating salads," "I enjoy cooking new foods."
By taking the first steps, you're presently making changes, not making them way off in the future. You're actively changing your life right now.