Upper Limiting and Weight Loss
One hundred and thirty-nine (139) pounds has been my problem weight for the past year. Whenever I step on the scale and it’s at 139, I start to binge and eat everything that I know I’m not supposed to. The number scares me because I know that I’m close to my goal and it feels uncomfortable.
In one of my favorite books, The Big Leap, Gay Hendricks describes the upper limit problem. basically, we have an internal dial of how much good we can accept. When we get close to the limit, we self-sabotage to get to a place where we are comfortable. This was exactly my problem. Every time I broke 140, it felt very uncomfortable and my subconscious mind did whatever it could to get back to a place it was comfortable.
Here’s how to move the dial:
Affirmations: I created a whole set of affirmations around weight loss and worthiness and I repeated these twice a day. It helped retrain my brain and cancel out the subconscious thoughts that my mind was using for comfort.
Declared my why: Once I started to pursue my holistic health coach certification, it gave me a bigger reason to live as healthy as I possibly could. This gave me the incentive that I needed to make the life long change that I’d been reaching for.
Removed obstacles: I stopped stepping on the scale. I still have a scale and I’ll weigh myself every now and then, but I stopped making this a daily thing. In general, the scale lies. Our bodies fluctuate and so many factors can come into play on the scale. Instead, I focused on what I was eating and making healthy choices for myself day after day.
Self-love: In addition to the affirmations, I started saying “I Love You” to myself every day. In addition, I’d ask the question, “How can I show you love today?” and then I’d follow through with whatever came to mind. This was another way to change some of the negative thoughts that I’d built up over the years and remind myself that I was very much worthy of the life that I wanted to live.
These steps won’t change you overnight, but little by little the changes will happen. Once you realize that you’re sabotaging yourself, it becomes that much easier to take the steps to overcome that.
You’ll get there.