Twisting Your Words: 3 Steps to Become Your Own Biggest Cheerleader
Have you ever been around someone who seems to have a dark cloud floating over them? And as soon as a conversation ends with them, the dark cloud seems to linger even after they've left the room no matter how positive and happy you were beforehand? Negativity can spread like wildfire but so can positivity. Although we can allow ourselves to be influenced by the external environment as well as internal self-talk in our own heads, for good or bad, we have the ability to control and redirect emotions, which has a powerful impact on our actions.
This can directly affect weight loss efforts, making healthy eating choices, and quality of workouts. Take control of potentially paralyzing internal and external influences and pump yourself up to make healthy choices with positive self-talk.
- Stop Being Your Own Enabler
An enabler usually refers to someone who makes it easy to continue an addiction or bad habit by physically offering something such as another beer or slice of cake. Enabling can also be psychological by saying things like, "One more won't hurt," or, "Missing one workout isn't going to kill you." Maybe you say things like this to yourself to justify skipping exercise or allowing yourself an extra cookie, continually compromising your long-term goals for short-term enjoyment and sense of reward.
- Twist Your Words
Instead of saying, "one more won't hurt," change it to, "every bite counts," or, "every workout counts," to trick your brain into getting back on track with focusing on your long-term goal. It's easy for our brains to justify single actions (or inactions) and behaviors that detract from working towards a longer-term goal such as training for a 10K or losing 25 lbs. By repeating the importance of each workout, each meal, and each day, this reinforces the cumulative effect of every choice and corresponding action.
- Let Go of the Guilt
Don't beat yourself up over small slip-ups or set-backs. Wallowing in self-pity never helped someone reach their goals. Acknowledge the slip-up and then turn it into a more positive experience by examining what could be done differently next time. Beating yourself up won't help progress!
- Twist Your Words
Tell yourself, "I had a slip-up and will do better next time," to keep a positive attitude, which ties into #3.
- Turn Doubt into Confidence
Instead of focusing on things like lack of motivation, time, energy, or past failures, focus on even the smallest triumphs to boost your sense of confidence and achievement. This will propel your momentum to keep moving forward.
- Twist Your Words
Replace, "I don't have time/energy to work out," or, "I'm never going to drop these pounds," to, "I'll do the best I can for today." This is truly all you have control over. Stay focused on what you can do immediately to work towards your goal, whether it's making a healthy meal choice, doing 1-2 minutes of stretching to decompress from a stressful situation, or fitting in a 15-minute workout during a chaotic day.
The more you practice positive affirming self-talk, negative self-sabotaging words will lessen and giving in to other people's negativity will too!
