Toolbox Tuesday

Starting today, every Tuesday will be known here as 'Toolbox Tuesday.' Basically, I'll pick something out of a 'toolbox' so to speak that will help me and anyone else who needs it in their quest to get to their ideal weight.For this first post, I'd like to talk about visualization as a means to achieve this goal or any goal for that matter. Anyone can visualize and we all have an imagination- even though we may not use it as productively as we should.

I have a tool box full of 'tools' that I picked up over the years, but as in anything, you need the right tool for the job. I picked this tool first because I think it's important for me to go back to the beginning and start with the basics. In the same way that I'm listening to my body's signals for hunger, I have to go back and reprogram not only my thinking and my self-talk but my 'vision' of myself as well.

I wish what I know now I knew then. In other words, I wish that when I was a teenager I didn't let all those negative comments about my weight take hold to the point that it became second nature to me to see myself as 'fat' even though I wasn't. I focused so much on worrying about getting fatter and thinking I was fat, that my mind and body together collaborated and delivered it to me on a platter- right next to the roast beef and mashed potatoes.

Thoughts become things. Everything, material and immaterial, had its beginning as a thought. Your subconscious and brain can only deliver what you tell it or 'see.' Think of visualization as focused daydreaming.

This only takes about five minutes a day and is easy and fun to do.

All you need to do is imagine yourself in your mind's eye as the person you want to be at your ideal weight. I hesitate to say 'thin' as some of us just weren't born to be skinny and our ideal weight may not be according to the Metropolitan Life Insurance charts. Try to picture yourself as comfortable with your body and at your ideal weight. Enjoy the daydream with all your five senses. How does it make you feel to look in the mirror and see you at your physical ideal? How does it sound to your ears when someone tells you how great you look? How does it feel to pull on pair of jeans? The more detailed you can make it, the better it will be. To super charge it, pretend it is reality and really 'feel' the feelings associated with it. Your brain must deliver what you focus on. Try doing this every morning when you get up.

Books that I would recommend to read for more information along these lines would be The Secret (Rhonda Byrne), Write it Down Make it Happen( Henriette Klauser), and Creative Visualization( Shakti Gawain).

It's time that I 'see' the picture.