#72: Identity

Reasons or

Results! 

Fitness Nutrition Training

Sovereign Michael Valentine

SPN, CFT, Eft, Yft, Cft, SSc, GFI, CMCht, CERT, Reiki Master

206.225.9647

email: sovereignmv@gmail.com

web: bnbbs.myshaklee.com

Special Report #72

Part of the

“I see you to succeeding"

series.

Identity

In the 20+ years I've been doing this stuff professionally, I have observed that one of the greatest factors associated with sustained fat-loss is identity; if you don't change how you see yourself, (before you lose the fat), the change won't stick or will likely be a yo-yo effect...gain some, lose some, gain some again. 

In order to make your process easier and more effortless, invest time in examining how you see yourself, since no amount of exercise will over come a self image that imagines yourself as fat and out of shape. This ties into the idea that you have to "believe it to see it". How you go about changing your inner vision of yourself is an individual process, meaning you have the freedom to choose "how" you change your image of yourself. 

If you don't see yourself as a lean, healthy person, every time you make some progress and get too far away from seeing yourself as the inner image as fat (body composition of 20% or more), the habits of health become "inconvenient", e.g. "I don't feel like it... I don't have time to workout today...I love myself as I am...I don't want to!"

Making excuses, rationalizing poor choices, blaming others, etc. Basic immature behaviors. At some point in the success process, regardless of the endeavor you have to release the reins of safety and familiarity and latch onto trust in the system that has already been proven to work by others in your same position...if you don't decisively let go of what doesn't work, you'll have one excuse after another why you can't do the things that will help, always blaming the outside world and avoiding the inside job...in other words you can't have one foot in "I only are a little McDonald's" and one foot in "I want to lose weight".

HINT: a great place to look as far as what your inner vision is, is to look at your role models during the time until you were about seven years old. This isn't always the greatest influence, sometimes people are the first person in their family to be overweight and struggle with health (in these cases, it's more about an unresolved emotional issue). 

Often, once the early vision of who you were supposed to be, or were pressured to be becomes clear, it's as easy as doing the antidote which is exercise and nutrition. In other words, do the lean lifestyle, the lean appears and the identity changes as a result of literally seeing yourself differently. In other words the identity has to change in order for the improvement to be permanent, but whether it comes from the inside first or the outside first is up to you to figure out. 

If someone won't do the work to update a new identity, then that "flags" it as an unresolved emotional issue. 

My post "Weighting to Wait", which addresses the emotional components of permanent fat loss.

How to know if identity or emotional issues are preventing fat loss? Here's the standard I use after 20 years. 12 pounds of fat loss per month is conservative for someone who has truly decided and committed to a lean lifestyle. 20 pounds per month is average. 45+ pounds per 8 weeks is not uncommon.

If you aren't attaining these kinds of numbers, either you don't have enough information  to succeed (get a good trainer) or there's a program running in the subconscious inhibiting the "letting go" of "weight" (fat) or you just need some fine tuning so the pieces of your program are working synergistically instead of sabotaging each other.

BUT, you have to have help getting your nutrition and exercise dialed in from day one. Experimenting and dabbling won't produce remarkable results at all and indicates inner conflict.

The thing to keep in mind is that the habits and moment-to-moment behaviors are different than what you imagine for a lean lifestyle... there's so much conflicting information out there most people have an unrealistic idea of the steps to take and gently give up after 3 months of exercising like crazy, but continuing to gain more fat.

Do the little thing now, do it consistently!