Battle of the wills

One of the hardest parts of a weight loss journey is the battle you wage with your mind. It is this battle, how prepared you are for it and whether you have a strategy or not that dictates how successful you are. This is how it has been for me, a woman who at 178cm was 139.9kgs - probably in the morbidly obese range.

I don't know if it is the same for people who have less to lose, but I know from conversations with the 12WBTers in the 30+ to lose group that this is the biggest challenge we face.

Our mind tries to convince us that we are happy the way we are...why bother with exercise and depriving the body with the things it craves. It's that little voice when you are running on the treadmill that says 'I can't do it, I won't be able to run for 5 minutes, stop now, my legs hurt, my feet hurt, stop, stop, stop'......Every day I face that voice. This round I'm doing the advanced lean and fit program and in seven weeks I have increased the time I run on the treadmill from 3 minutes to 10 minutes. A huge success for me! But EVERY day is about my mental strategy when I get on to that treadmill.

I focus on the first 2 minutes. Once I get there and the little voice starts nagging me, I play the game. 'Just another minute' I tell the voice. Then at 2 minutes that voice starts telling me that 'I'm not up to it today' or 'it hurts too much'. So I concentrate on each minute. I tell "the voice" 'Its ok I'll stop at 5 mins'. When I get to 5 minutes I just keep focusing on that next minute. Before I know it I'm to 9 minutes and by this stage I KNOW that I can make it to 10 minutes. Next goal - 15 mins.

I have not won the battle with that doubting voice. I have 34 years of listening to that voice rather than rejecting it's view of my life and what I can achieve. I will get there, I will get to a place where that voice controls me less and my will power is stronger!!! I just have to keep fighting and keep the reinforcements coming!!