In Weight Loss You Are Your Focus

By: Eric Viskovicz

When it comes to weight loss, there are many things to focus on. Counting calories, carbohydrate and protein levels, getting the right kind of exercise, measuring your weight every week, are just a few. However, amongst the many facets of weight loss, the focus remains the same: the goal is to lose weight. Of course, the goal begins with the premise that we are too fat. While we may be consciously thinking about losing weight, we are also aware that we are too fat. To be sure, if we were not too fat, we would not need to lose weight. In a way, we are focusing on the fact that we are too fat.

Well, if you focus on the fact that you are too fat, this becomes your reality. Focusing on anything tends to increase it’s likelihood. There are many reasons for this. Initially, when we focus on something, even in the case of something we don’t like, such as being fat, we think more about it. As our thoughts center around the thing we are focusing on, the feelings associated with this thing also increase in frequency and intensity. For example, if you close your eyes and think about a cute puppy, you will probably experience feelings of joy, affection, and amusement. Well, in the case of weight loss, the effect is no different. If you focus on being too fat, you will probably experience feelings of inadequacy, rejection, and anger. It would be hard not too.

Once you do experience these emotions, you are much more likely to associate these emotions with other times in your life that you also felt that way. Because your memory is to a large degree regulated by your emotions, experiencing emotions of one kind triggers memories also associated with that emotion. So when you feel inadequacy about being fat, you will also probably recall other times in your life when you felt that way. You may remember event from your past, such as the snide comments of a critical parent, or a hurtful thing that a loved one said to you. Once these memories pile up, your emotional response intensifies.

While it may create some feelings of inadequacy to think about being fat, it probably creates more powerful feelings of inadequacy to think about a time when your father told you that you were no good. As your emotions become stronger, the tendency to identify with those emotions also becomes stronger. Essentially, the more we feel inadequate, the more we act inadequate. We may fail to try, for fear of not succeeding, we may fail to ask for what we really need, thinking we don’t deserve it, we may not follow through, believing that we will never make it, and we may make excuses for our behavior. Once this behavior pattern ensues, it begins to be part of our identity, and we start to see ourselves as an inadequate person.

Well, people who feel inadequate, do not lose weight. Why? To answer this question, think of all of things necessary to lose weight. First, we have to be willing to accept our shortcomings when it comes to our behavior around food and exercise. Then we have to accept responsibility for these shortcomings, Next, we have to have trust in something other than ourselves, such as a weight loss program, therapist, coach, trainer, nutritionist, to show us the way. From there, we have to be willing to let go of control and follow the steps necessary to lose weight. Lastly, we have to take responsibility for our part of the weight loss. That means not just doing the exercise and eating correctly, but adjusting all of the other factors in our lives necessary to make that happen. Maybe we need to get to bed earlier, maybe we need to end an unhealthy relationship, or maybe we need to work less. Whatever the case may be, we have to do our part.

Looking at everything it takes to lose weight, it is not hard to see that in order to do all of these things, you will need to be feeling something other than inadequacy. You will have to be feeling something other than any emotion associated with being fat for that matter. Most likely, you will need to be feeling strong, confident, and capable. Well ask yourself, what things are associated with those feelings. What do you do in your life that makes you feel strong? When do you feel most confident? What about capable? Thinking about these things and focusing on them is much more likely to bring about the emotions necessary to achieve them. And one of those things that makes you feel strong might also be achieving fitness.

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For more information about the author Eric Viskovicz please visit http://www.ericviskovicz.com

In the field of weight loss, few take the approach that Eric Viskovicz does. A lifetime in competitive sports, including at the college, coupled with a history of an eating disorder, and a 50 pound weight struggle has given Eric Viskovicz a unique insight into the mind of the person who struggles with weight, as well as the mind of the professional athlete.