The Secret Weapon in Creating The Body You Want

Most people let their thinking absolutely destroy them and their chances of ever creating the body they really want.  To make that even worse very few people are even aware of what the process of thinking actually is, so they have no place to go to make effective changes.

The good news is that the solution is actually quite simple:

Thinking is nothing more than the process of asking and answering questions.  Think about it, you just asked yourself a question about that statement I made… “is that true?”

With questions you can find any answer that you are looking for, or as the Bible says, “seek and ye shall find.”  The problem is that most of the time we are unconscious about the questions we ask – we simply ask them out of habit or despair.

So, if you ask yourself a question like, “why am I so fat?” or “why can’t I lose weight?” you WILL get an answer.  The problem is that there really aren’t any USEFUL answers to
those questions.

It doesn’t matter if the presupposition in your question is accurate or not, your brain will find an answer.  In the above you presupposed that:

#1.  You are a fat person (different than being a person with extra body-fat on them.  No, that is not just semantics – one is a temporary condition, the other is the identity that you have for yourself.  One of THE most powerful forces in the human personality IS the need to stay consistent with your identity.)

#2.  You can’t lose weight

By the way, your presuppositions are WRONG.

These are poor questions, but your brain will absolutely give you an answer anyway.  Unfortunately, the only answers to that question are self-defeating like:

• “because I have bad genetics”
• ”because I don’t have the time”
• ”because my parents treated me with junk food so now I love it”
• ”because I’m a big, fat slob who doesn’t have any self-discipline”
• “I don’t know, but there’s no point in working out”

Or something to that effect.

It turns out that what you REALLY wanted to know was:

“How can I drop a lot of body fat really fast, do that without being hungry, while increasing my energy levels and do it in a way that actually fits my schedule and while eating food that tastes good?”

That’s a question that has a VERY useful answer.

The same thing goes for life and fitness overall.  Asking yourself
questions like:

• Why can’t I eat French fries, everyone else is [in a whiny voice, of course]?
• Why do I keep screwing up?
• Why does _______ suck?

These questions can only yield answers that will make you feel hopeless and put-upon.

Better questions would be:

• ”What CAN I eat right now that would taste good AND help me get the body I want?” [this one COMPLETELY shifts your focus from what you’re missing out on to what you want, and thus completely changes how you feel and experience that situation.]
• What do I love about working out?
• How can I get back on track and be really happy doing it?
• Why do I love being fit?

YES, those questions actually have REAL answers.  Your brain may reply to the first one with, “Nothing!” initially.  But, you’re the boss  and you can always ask again, and ask with the expectation that you will get an answer – which you’ll get in no more than 60sec.  (By the way, when it comes to people’s brains and their kids they always seem to forget that they are the boss and that they call the shots…)

The questions you ask will determine what you focus on, and thus how you feel and what kind of action you do or don’t take.  Be conscious of the questions you are asking.  If you’re feeling bad its usually being compounded by a negative question, and you can turn things around very quickly with a positive question.

A positive question will get your focused on what you want, what you like and how to get there while having a good time and will completely change how you feel.

Let me leave you with these questions.  By the way if you take 10sec per question to really answer specifically, and to FEEL the answers you will feel like a million bucks!

#1.  What are you happy about in my body/fitness/lifestyle right now?  Why
does that make me happy?  How does that make me feel?

#2.  What am I proud of in my body/fitness/lifestyle?  Why am I proud of
that?  How does that make me feel?

#3.  What am I looking forward to in my body/fitness/lifestyle?  Why am I
looking forward to that?  How does that make me feel?

#4.  On a general note:  What am I grateful for in my life?  Why?  How
does that make me feel?

#5.  Who do I love?  Why?  How does that make me feel?

Really take the 10sec to specifically answer and feel those answers.

Josef Brandenburg is also the author of The Body You Want, and an award winning Washington DC personal trainer that was nominated several times for 2009 Personal Trainer of the Year from Personal Fitness Professional Magazine.  Oh, and check out his new web-site washingtondcpersonaltrainer.com