I have no doubt that a
scientist somewhere just read the title of this article and said out
loud, “YES! Venuto is right! That little thing in your head
– the hypothalamus – it IS the thing that is keeping you
fat! By George, that Venuto guy isn’t a dumb bodybuilder after
all – he’s been doing his research!” At which moment,
I will be shaking my head and thinking, “you need to get out of
the laboratory and into the real world, with real people, buddy.”
Okay, okay, to be fair, Neuro-endocrine control of appetite and body
fat really is quite fascinating. But today, I’m talking about PSYCH-ology, not PHYSI-ology. The little thing in your head that’s keeping you fat is actually just a….

Limiting belief!

Self-limiting beliefs are
among the biggest problems that people deal with in their struggles to
achieve a healthy ideal weight. They’re also one of the reasons
that so many people start to falter or fall off the diet and exercise
wagon as early as late January or early February in their New
Year’s goal pursuits.

If you’re that science
guy I spoke of and you’re about to bail because you’re
thinking, “Here we go again… another psycho-babble, self
help article,” then think again. A belief is the force behind the
placebo effect, which is well known by every scientist and medical
professional. A respected doctor gives a patient a pill and is told
it’s a powerful drug. The patient gets well immediately, not
knowing that the “miraculous” substance was a dummy pill.
Inert. Sugar. The miracle was in the mind.

But beliefs are not only
involved in the mind-body connection, they are unconscious programs
that control your behavior. The most important factor in whether you
achieve the body and the health you want is NOT what diet or training
program you follow. It’s what makes you follow your diet and
training program. And guess what? What you believe controls your
behavior - whether you will stick with your program or sabotage it with
cheating, bingeing or inconsistency.

What to do about limiting beliefs

Ok, so now you agree that
beliefs are psychological factors that affect you physically by
controlling your behavior, including your eating, exercising and
lifestyle. What now? 3 steps. 2 questions.

STEP 1: IDENTIFY LIMITING BELIEFS

You are fully aware of many of
your beliefs. For example, beliefs about spirituality or politics are
usually in the front of your conscious mind.

But the beliefs that hold back
your health and physical development the most are usually the ones you
don’t even know you have. They are like unconscious “brain
software,” running silently in the background.

So the first step is to bring
those unconscious and potentially damaging beliefs up to the surface so
you are aware of them. You can’t fix a problem if you don’t
know you have one.

2 Quick Questions That Will Help Draw Out Your Beliefs

Beliefs can go back to
childhood, but don’t worry, you don’t have to go to a
psychotherapist and be regressed back to kindergarten. It’s
simpler than that. But it does pay to do this questioning process as a
formal “exercise” with serious quiet time, with pen and
paper (instead of just thinking about it).

Question #1: What causes me to be overweight (or unhealthy, or not having the body I want)?

Question #2: What’s preventing me from getting leaner? (or healthier?)

Spend some time with it and
see how big of a list you can create. Ask yourself whether each belief
helps or hurts you. Does it move you forward or backward. Does it
empower or disempower you? The ones that hurt you or hold you back will
be obvious. You may come up with beliefs such as:

“I’m overweight and I can’t get leaner because”:

I have no time
I’m too old
I can’t stop eating
I hate exercise
You just can’t do it when you have 4 kids
It’s impossible after having a hip replacement

But the million dollar question is: are these beliefs actually true?

Beliefs are not facts. You may
hold your beliefs as absolute reality, but when you deconstruct them
and challenge them, you may see that they don’t hold any water.

Self limiting beliefs are
false interpretations (negative thought patterns) that hold you back.
And you keep holding on to them because making excuses and staying the
same is a lot more convenient than changing, isn’t it? Change
requires hard work, effort and leaving your comfort zone.

Your mission now: weaken the limiting beliefs and get rid of them

STEP 2: CHALLENGE THOSE BELIEFS

How do you challenge a belief? 4 ways:

(A) Challenge it directly:
Is the belief even valid at all? See if you can find a “counter
example” that disproves your belief. For example; if you think
that after you’ve had 3 or 4 kids, it’s impossible to get a
nice flat stomach, what will you say after I introduce you to a dozen
of my clients and readers who had 3 or 4 kids and went from bulging
belly to rock-hard flat stomach? If they did it, then how could your
belief be valid? Answer: It WASN’T! You believed something false
and inaccurate and it was holding you back!

(B) Challenge the source: Is it your
belief, or have you been living what your parents, peers or culture
handed down to you? Just the realization that a belief wasn’t
yours to begin with is enough to shatter it.

(C) Challenge the usefulness of the belief:
Ok, so you believed something when you were younger. Does still
believing it has any usefulness today? Does it help you move closer to
what you want in your life today? If not, then wouldn't today be a
good time to get rid of it?

(D) Challenging the belief by weighing the consequences:
If you keep this belief, what is it going to cost you? What will the
pain be like? What will you miss? And what will these consequences be
if you don’t change it NOW?

STEP 3: INSTALL A NEW BELIEF

Nature abhors a vacuum, as
Spinoza once said. You don’t simply get rid of a belief, you must
also replace it. What things would you want and need to believe instead
that would create positive behaviors that would move you toward your
goal? Write them down, then massage them into an affirmation. For
example, if you’ve hung your hat on the belief that you
didn’t have time to exercise, could you write a new affirmation
of belief similar to this?

“I’m a very
busy person, so that means I must set clear priorities and I must keep
my health and body on the top of my priority list. I always schedule
time for my most important priorities, I am efficient with my training,
and I use every minute of my day wisely. And if Barack Obama, the
busiest person in the world, can train for 45 minutes a day 6 days a
week, there’s no excuse for me. I can do it too.”

Then “activate”
this affirmation by doing what Olympic and professional athletes do:
engaging in mental rehearsal. Visualize yourself carrying out the
behaviors that this belief would generate. Think about and feel what it
would be like to take those positive actions steps and play mental
movies of how your life would change by doing so. Involve all your
senses: see it, hear it, feel it.

Keep it up until you start to
see your behavior change and your habitual actions come into alignment
with your goals/intentions. If you’re diligent, you’ll see
changes in attitude and behavior with 21-30 days. It may happen sooner.
It may take longer if you’ve carried deep, lifelong limiting
beliefs. But in less than a month, the roots of the new belief pattern
will be formed.

Tom Venuto
Fat Loss Coach
www.BurnTheFat.com

About
the Author:

 

Tom Venuto is a
fat loss expert, lifetime natural (steroid-free)
bodybuilder, independent nutrition researcher, freelance writer, and
author of the #1 best selling diet e-book, Burn The Fat, Feed The
Muscle: Fat-Burning Secrets of The World’s Best Bodybuilders
& Fitness Models (e-book) which
teaches you how to get lean
without
drugs or supplements using secrets of the world's best bodybuilders and
fitness models. Learn how to get rid of stubborn fat and increase your
metabolism by visiting: www.burnthefat.com