Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Shift Monthly:Stuck? Get Unstuck!

August 2013 Shift Monthly Shift Monthly is a monthly coaching session written by clinical hypnotherapist and cognitive weight expert Rita Black dedicated to exploring how to implement “thin thinking” in order to achieve long term permanent Weight Mastery. Each month we focus on a different theme of Weight Mastery.  www.shiftweightmastery.com   August Theme: Leveling up your eating and weighing in experiences.

MICHELLE HAS RELEASED 55lbs. SINCE LAST SEPTEMBER’S SHIFT WEIGHT MASTERY PROCESS
Click the link to hear Michelle’s inspiring story and insights www.shiftweightmastery.com/MichelleN.mp3
The next Shift Weight Mastery Process begins September 21st—click link below to find out more and sign up for a free phone consultation.   http://www.shiftweightmastery.com/ShiftSeminar.html

SHIFT MONTHLY: STUCK? GET UNSTUCK : Weight Mastery coaching for breaking a plateau

Weight loss plateaus, like death, taxes and men leaving dirty socks on the floor (no offense guys—said with love), are pretty much guaranteed.  During the many years of my practice as a clinical hypnotherapist specializing in long term permanent weight “release” and helping thousands of clients in that time period I can pretty assure you that most everyone hits a plateau at some point during their journey to their ideal weight.  The difference in who is successful breaking through this perceived barrier and who is not is based entirely upon how the person deals with it mentally, physically and environmentally. 

As Shifters we want to look at plateaus in a way that gives us power rather than takes it away from us.  This month I am going to focus on the mental game of mastering and busting a plateau—because once your mind can SHIFT around and through a plateau your body will follow.

UNSTICK THE “STUCK”

First of all, let’s be clear on what our definition of a weight loss plateau is.

Definition: A weight loss plateau is a period of time where your weight does not change.

Hmm, a period of time where our weight does not change?  Well that seems innocent enough.  So why do those three strike such fear, anger and frustration in the heart of many??? 

Let’s look at our FAT THINKING around weight loss plateaus.

-I don’t deserve this (plateau)

-This is unfair

-My body is broken

-I will be fat forever

-I am working so hard and nothing is happening

-Nothing works

-Plateaus suck

-Plateaus are hard

-If I was better, smarter, richer, prettier, this wouldn’t be happening

BTW, “Fat Thinking” is the term we use at Shift to define the all or nothing, good or bad, on or off a diet thinking that we get into when trying to LOSE weight.  Fat Thinking includes the negative beliefs that keep us stuck in our struggle with weight.  When we SHIFT we are Shifting our mind into “Thin Thinking” which comes from a vision of what we want to achieve, which is not only weight “release” (because we never want to find that weight again) but a vision of finding a way of connecting and communicating with ourselves in this area of our lives that allows us to feel nourished, vibrant and masterful. 

As a dieter stuck in Fat Thinking we hate and fear plateaus because they keep us from our main dieter goal—seeing results on the scale. 

Diets focus us on the external—the results on the scale—following the diet “plan” perfectly-- but usually never focus us on making the changes internally that keep us struggling with weight in the first place. So plateaus form a huge threat to a dieter because all the positive feedback they are receiving for restricting themselves on the diet is gone. 

When we start a diet there is a daily loss on the scale.  It’s great!  It’s fun!  It’s glamorous and cool—sexy!!  But what happens when the scale stops dropping and there is no more positive reinforcement on the outside—only the diet plan and restriction with no apparent pay off? 

AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

We start to get upset.  Our inner mindset which has not been altered at all by the diet and which is still stuck in fat thinking begins to come back full force. Our Inner Critic who has been lying dormant while the scale dropped now wakes up and begins to analyze the scenario—

“What’s wrong with you?  Why aren’t you losing?  You are doing something wrong!  You picked the wrong diet.  The scale should be lower now.  Your body is broken. Your head is broken.  This plateau equals failure.  You are a failure.”   Yikes—not so fun now –right?

As the days pass and the Inner Critic continues the rant about the flat line scale we feel another Fat thinking part of us kick in.  Yes—it’s our friend the Inner Rebel.

“Weeeeelll since you aren’t losing any weight maybe you can just eat that cookie.  This diet sucks, obviously.  You worked so hard, let’s just take a break—maybe we can start another diet—the best diet—next week?”

The Inner Critic and the Inner Rebel—those parts of us that drive our Fat Thinking-- love to come out and play during a plateau and usually what happens is we give up, we become a victim of our limiting beliefs about the plateau, sabotage the diet, abandon the plan, and with no internal Shift having occurred, gain the weight back.

SHIFTING INTO THIN THINKING THROUGH PLATEAUS

When we Shift we make the decision to begin to use our mind differently about how we approach our weight.  We recognize that the mental thought systems and strategies that we operate from will need to be “Shifted” in order to have lasting, long term permanent weight release.  Success comes not from a diet on the outside but from engaging the Inner Coach within you, (and at Shift we use hypnosis and cognitive techniques to help us) to unravel the faulty wiring that keeps us struggling and to re-wire ourselves with a powerful mental foundation that supports our living our life at our ideal weight.

So a weight release plateau to a Shifter is not so threatening because we understand the physics side of weight release and we also know that a plateau can be an opportunity to connect with our Inner Coach and grow from the experience.  Just because there is no movement on the scale externally, does not mean there can be no movement internally. 

Often many a Weight release Master will say that their biggest mental breakthroughs came during their weight release journey plateaus—because they were forced to turn within—to learn to stretch themselves past where their current thinking was stopping them (which was being reflected on the scale).

The best coaches create a powerful vision and ask powerful questions that help keep one focused on moving forward.  Your Inner Coach can now do the same with your own journey towards weight mastery, rather than becoming a victim of the “perceived” plateau on the scale. (Often plateaus are not real but just the scales waiting for water release weight to catch up to real fat release weight)

If you are experiencing a weight release plateau right now try engaging your Inner Coach and ask yourself these questions.

1) Is my vision of what I want to achieve with my weight release journey as powerful and visceral as it was when I began?  If not, how can I up the stakes and power of what I want to achieve until I feel reinvigorated and engaged again?

2) Do I really believe I am going to be successful?  If not, what are the limiting beliefs that keep me from feeling 100% certain?  I can begin to get conscious that these beliefs are a block and need to be Shifted and move towards that—(seek support, hypnosis CDs, reframe the belief in a positive way)

3) Do I need to focus my efforts externally? Am I being accurate in my tracking?  Are my portions bigger than I am accounting for?

4) Am I at a mental plateau? Do I need to shift my thoughts more—are there thoughts that are holding me back such as:

 “I am afraid to be seen or be seen as attractive to others”

“I am afraid to feel vulnerable and small”

 “I am not willing to exercise more or focus on calories, or write down my food.”

--there are many other thoughts or beliefs that may be mentally keeping you at a plateau—can you get curious about them and then begin to get conscious about them and then begin to Shift them?

With the dieter Fat Thinking, mindset when a plateau occurs we assume something is wrong and this DISCONNECTS YOU FROM YOURSELF and takes your power away.

When you SHIFT and a plateau occurs, you still may feel a bit bummed but you can keep your power and still move forward (even though the scale may not be)—and STAY CONNECTED to yourself by engaging your Inner Coach and turning within.

 

Please use the following mind exercise to get you Shift forward within.

Mental Exercise for Plateau Busting:

1)    Create a vivid representation of the way you are right now in your plateau (your present state) with all of the challenges the plateau represents.

2)    See yourself the way you would want to be when you get through all of the challenges.  Be clear on the specifics—how you would be behaving, how much would you be eating and exercising, what do you look like, how do you feel??

3)    Place one image in each of your hands outstretched in front of you with a space separating them.  This space represents the unexplored territory and unspecified steps that lie between the plateau state and the plateau busted state.

4)    Begin to make a series of images or movies of the logical steps from one state to another, adjusting each frame until each is a fully representational stage of the process of change.

5)    When you have between 5-8 stages in front of you, begin slowly to close your hands, collapsing all of the stages into a single process.

6)    Bring your clasped hands toward your body and pull the new state into your body, making a new feeling that represents action and success—PLATEAU BUSTING!

7)    Spin that feeling faster and faster. Intensifying it and allowing it to spread throughout your body so that it saturated every muscle, every organ, every nerve, every cell.  As you do this, look at what you need to do (or think) first. Then see yourself taking the second step and then the third etc. and keep spinning and intensifying that feeling until you feel excited and energized and ready to make the mental and/or physical adjustments and go bust that plateau!

Have a great UNSTUCK month!!

Oxox Rita

MICHELLE HAS RELEASED 55lbs.  SINCE LAST SEPTEMBER’S SHIFT WEIGHT MASTERY PROCESSClick the link to hear Michelle’s inspiring story and insights www.shiftweightmastery.com/MichelleN.mp3
The next Shift Weight Mastery Process begins September 21st—click link below to find out more and sign up for a free phone consultation.   http://www.shiftweightmastery.com/ShiftSeminar.html

 

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