http://www.articletrader.com/ Articles at ArticleTrader en-us http://www.articletrader.com/health/weight-loss/think-yourself-thin-two-simple-secrets-to-weight-loss.html http://www.articletrader.com/health/weight-loss/think-yourself-thin-two-simple-secrets-to-weight-loss.html Wed, 21 May 2008 00:00:00 -0500 These thoughts are your personal negative mind path. They are keeping you fat without your even knowing they are there. And the good news is that you can change their route.
It’s actually simple brain science: neuro pathways become hardened the more often they are used. Like wandering mindlessly through a woods, your brain unconsciously seeks the best traveled trail. While your conscious thoughts are occupied with many other things, your subconscious mind follows the path of least resistance. And every day you do this, that trail becomes more comfortable, easier. After not much the path becomes hardened, paved, the only road around.
Those negative thoughts :"my belly", "I'm gross" etc., have become your mind’s default mode.
Once you start noticing them, you’ll be surprised at how often these self-loathing thoughts crop up in your mind. These pathways have been forged over many years, and now your thoughts follow them unconsciously in response to the slightest trigger (those photos, that mirror.)
But it’s not the only road. New paths can be formed that will take you in the direction you really want to go. You can reset your mental pathways. And it’s not that hard to do.
To reprogram your brain, you need to consciously reroute your mental pathways, to make it your mind’s path of choice. After a while, you won’t even think about it.

Willpower?
Your mind has tremendous power over your body. Every single thought reflects in your physical being as your mind works to bring your body into agreement with its thoughts. Thoughts of “I am clumsy” will make you so.. Thoughts of “I am fat” create a subconscious motivation to be – yep – fat.
This isn't a matter of willpower. Change the way you think and you will change your behavior. Anyone can do it. It may even be fun.
There are several ways to do this. Hypnosis is one. There is a fun program called LimbaSlim that works with your brain in a simple 10-minute daily meditation to reroute these mind paths. Or you can do it yourself, with nothing more than a pencil – or a computer – and a couple of minutes a day.

The Funny, Simple 2-Step Key to Your New MindPath
(You might want to be alone for this. You’ll see why in a second.)
1. Write it down: Write a positive, simple affirmation statement, like, "I, ___________, have a beautiful, strong, fit body." Make it your own, make it positive, and write it ten (or more!) times a day. It can be on a chalkboard, in the sand, on your computer, ANYWHERE. You don't need to keep it. It's all in the DOing. It’s important that this statement be worded in the positive. Instead of “I, ______ am not fat” you must write, “I _______ am slim.” This is because your mind – brilliant though it is – may hear the word “fat” and jump right back to that old path. You are building a new, positive path.
2. Say it: First whisper it. Then say it in your regular speaking voice. Last, YELL IT!
This is all it takes to begin forging your new mind path. It works. It's science, not magic. Every day it will become more ingrained - and here's the kicker - EVEN IF YOU DON'T BELIEVE IT. Even if you're sitting there writing it, yelling to yourself and thinking, this is really lame.
You can do this. Only your thoughts can free your beautiful new body. And only you hold the key to your thoughts.



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Rebecca Barnard is a writer and the inventor of LimbaSlim , a simple self-hypnosis shortcut that will help you retrain your brain in no time. She lives on San Juan Island, WA, with her artist husband, two big kids and a dog named Sugar .

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/health/weight-loss/my-fat-head-or-how-i-overcame-my-own-personal-obesity-epidemic.html http://www.articletrader.com/health/weight-loss/my-fat-head-or-how-i-overcame-my-own-personal-obesity-epidemic.html Wed, 07 May 2008 00:00:00 -0500 What was happening? I decided to look into it.
I learned that women heading toward menopause begin to lay down stores of fat. Fat holds estrogen, so as we quit manufacturing our own supplies of estrogen, our bodies plan ahead by hoarding it.
Okay, this is all good information, but who cares? I want to get rid of this fat, to reverse the weight gain, and…this is the kicker…WITHOUT PILLS. I didn’t want to take hormones or diet pills. I simply wanted to eat as much as I wanted, and stop this weight gain.
I started by asking myself a few questions:
1. What does food represent to me?
2. Why do I eat when I’m not hungry?
3. Why do skinny people seem to eat whatever they want?

The answers were simple: Food represented comfort. I ate when I wasn’t hungry for nutrition - I was hungry for comfort, for security, for that wonderful feeling of well being that comes from satiation..
But skinny people eat when they are hungry for nutrition, not for comfort. How do they do that? Surely they need comfort too. Maybe they get it elsewhere, and not from food. The irony is that by eating this way, they can easily fit “forbidden” treats into their plan without going overboard. And since they aren’t ashamed of their eating, they do it in public – where we see them – eating whatever they feel like eating.
It was at this point that the lightbulb went on in the thought bubble above my cartoon head:
Eating is in your mind.
Our eating is dictated by our emotions, not our stomachs.
What if we could fix that, so that we truly WANTED to eat only when our bodies – not our hearts - were actually hungry?
What if we could change what we WANT? What if we could reprogram our brains to change – permanently -what we want to eat? To train our brains to respect our bodies and crave only healthful foods?
That’s when the LimbaSlim solution hit me.
Hypnosis works on the principle of suggestibility: implanting a suggestion when the brain is in a particular stage of relaxation called alpha. After a hypnosis session, one feels strong, in control. It is a wonderful feeling, and really works to keep cravings at bay. But the cravings always come back. The suggestions in hypnosis aren’t lasting – they need something more.
Aromatherapy also works, to an extent. But maybe there was a way to make it work even better. Smells have a unique ability - to transport us, to trigger memories long forgotten. The smell of the ocean on a particular day, the smell of a certain long forgotten perfume - out of the blue, a sniff can take us back in time. Science calls this olfactory memory The smell triggers the limbic system of the brain – the part of the brain responsible for emotion and memory.
Remember how we decided that overeating was more emotion than nutrition?
What if, I reasoned, one could combine fragrance and meditation to create a double whammy of alpha suggestibility? Could that potentially create an unstoppable motivation to achieve one’s goals? A brand new smell coupled with a motivational meditation would give the mind a brand new path - a trigger accessible anytime, forever, to bring one’s mind back to a place of willpower and self assurance by simply taking a whiff of a brand new smell uniquely associated with that feeling of strength and calm.

This is why I invented LimbaSlim. It is a unique program that combines aromatherapy with a guided meditation you do at home. The meditation is only 10 minutes long, and teaches you to love your body and crave only healthful nutritious foods. Before listening, you dab a bit of LimbaSlim fragrance beneath your nose. Then you carry a pocket-sized LimbaSniffer with you to reinforce your willpower throughout the day.
AND IT WORKS. My weight now goes down instead of up. I am not on a diet, and I eat exactly what I want to eat, in whatever quantity I need. I feel better than I’ve felt in many years, as I have happily released those 20 pounds without consciously changing a thing. I listen to the LimbaSlim meditation about once a week now, and I carry the LimbaSlim fragrance with me always, either in a necklace or the LimbaSniffer.
I know I will never be overweight again. It was all in my head all along.
Thank you for reading my story.

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Rebecca Barnard is the owner of LimbaSystems.com, in Friday Harbor, Washington, where she lives with her husband, two teenagers, five ducks, two cats and a dog named Sugar.


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