Be Nice to Yourself

Every night before my eleven-year-old son goes to bed, my husband has him say to himself, “I am a great basketball player” three times. We have all heard of positive affirmations and saying nice things to ourselves, but it is not just a “mumbo jumbo” idea. The gravity of what we say to ourselves is huge and it may be the reason that some of us are more successful than others at our fitness goals.

Our brains have two parts: our conscious mind, and our sub-conscious mind. Our conscious mind is dictated by facts and reality. Our sub-conscious mind, on the other hand, does not know the difference between a lie and the truth. What we tell our subconscious minds, it believes as truth and we think about it. Our thoughts dictate our actions, what we do, and how we feel about ourselves.

This becomes extremely important when it comes to our fitness level. If we are constantly telling ourselves that we are fat, too tired to workout, and too busy to care about our health, abracadabra – that is who we become, and our actions will be as such. If we tell ourselves that we deserve to be fit, that we will eat healthy, and we will workout, it also works like magic, and we follow these thoughts with those actions.

So here is the challenge for all of us: tell yourself exactly who you want to become. If your goal is to lose 20 pounds, tell yourself that you have the dedication to achieve weight loss. Tell yourself that you CAN and WILL do it. If your goal is to bench press 100 pounds, tell yourself you are strong and that you CAN do it. Be nice to yourself. It is counterproductive to try and make a lifestyle change and at the same time tell your mind that you are lazy and you always fail at changing. We all deserve to be fit and healthy and it starts with our thoughts.