For information on my Clinical Hypnotherapy Services Please Visit:
www.asherfoxtransforms.com or www.tampastopsmoking.com
Part 1.
Living in Florida, I’ve had the opportunity many times to see the space shuttle take off from Cape Canaveral. An impressive site, it’s almost impossible to not be moved by the shear display of force used to propel the craft skyward. What’s not commonly considered though is how that effort is distributed throughout the shuttle’s climb to orbit and how similar that space craft’s journey to the stars is to the the journey of those struggling to create permanent weight loss.
Did you know that 80% of the shuttle’s fuel and force is used in the first 20% of its journey? In other words, getting off the ground is the hardest part. Strangely enough, once the shuttle reaches a particular altitude it’s able to go farther and faster with only a fraction of the fuel and force that it had to use in the beginning to cross much more meager distances. In 15 years of helping clients reach their weight loss goals, as well as my own personal journey in overcoming obesity, I have never come across a more accurate metaphor to describe the process of beginning a weight loss program.
If you’ve ever struggled to begin changing your body after years of carrying excess body fat and weight, then you understand how seemingly unrewarding your initial weight loss efforts can be, even when it seems as if you’ve made a massive effort! One of the biggest psychological pit falls at the beginning of a body transformation program is the perception of effort expended vs reward received. It just doesn’t seem to equal out in our favor! … or does it?
In reality, our dissatisfaction with our results is usually caused by the emotional upheaval created by comparing ourselves “now”with how we want to look when we reach our goals. For some reason, after expending more effort than we have in quite a while (maybe ever) to change our bodies, it somehow seems perfectly reasonable that we should see the results immediately. Unfortunately the body doesn’t change that fast, but feelings do, and those emotional vicissitudes are commonly at the heart of how and why we sabotage ourselves in the beginning of our program. The reality is that while it may seem like we are putting out a massive amount of effort for little results, unlike the space shuttle the truth is quite the opposite. In the beginning of a well designed weight loss program you actually get the greatest and quickest results from the least amount of effort than you will at any other time throughout your program.
There are two powerful lessons here:
First, emotions are rarely a good decision making map of reality when addressing and overcoming long held problems. Quite often, the way we feel about the problem creates, or at least perpetuates, the problem itself.
Secondly, while the space shuttle 80/20 rule is a great analogy for getting started, it applies to the psychological effort and not the physiological reality. When your feelings are not allowed to interfere or sabotage, your body actually will give you even greater results in the beginning of your program. You’re really putting out 20% of the effort and getting 80% results, but since you’ve never put out this type of effort before it usually feels quite the opposite. The good news is in this instance perception is not reality and if you don’t become discouraged with unrealistic expectations you can get some quick results and set a great foundation for the rest of your journey to weight loss success.
So now that we understand the physical truth of effort vs results in the beginning of our program, what can we do to help our minds embrace it without becoming discouraged because results aren’t coming as quickly as we’d like? Fortunately, in Part 2 of “Lifting Off With Weight Loss…” I’ll share a few tricks, tips, and techniques from my 15 years of clinical experience that is sure to help.
Until next week remember, at the heart of transformation is always truth. ~ Asher
{ 4 comments }