Integrating Activity
In this section: Activity for Weight Loss, Activity for Wellbeing, What is ‘Being Active?’, Maximising the Power and Absorbing Activity
Part 3 is all about being active. Being active is not about sweating for hours at the gym or running for miles on the streets, or even enduring an exuberant aerobics session - unless of course that is what you enjoy doing. Being active is about increasing your heart rate enough to have a positive impact on weight loss and your health.
Again, this part has Activities to complete and an accompanying recording - accessed from the website as before. Listen to the recording regularly and keep carrying out your own focused thinking to embed changes at an unconscious level.
Activity for weight loss
Let’s look back to the original and widely accepted formula for losing weight:
Energy in (i.e. calories from food and drink) < Energy out
You have resolved issues impacting on your relationship with food and reduced ‘energy in’ by eliminating compulsive and habitual eating and by ‘re-programming’ your internal signals. By increasing your ‘energy out’ you can further increase the differential, and lose weight even faster.
Most people would agree that burning extra energy through being active is a lot less noticeable than reducing energy-in by the same amount. For instance, a half hours brisk walk could use up the same amount of energy as you take in with half of your dinner-time meal. Walking for half an hour won’t result in you feeling hungry, but only eating half of your meal probably will. Therefore, being more active is a very effective way to lose weight and also has many positive impacts on your fitness levels, health and wellbeing.
Your metabolism is your body’s mechanism for turning food into energy. Activity levels impact on how efficiently your metabolism works - and keeping active speeds up the process not only during periods of activity but for many hours afterwards too. Increased metabolism means you convert food to energy more effectively and therefore lose weight quicker. So by being active everyday you can boost your metabolism and keep it working at an optimal level on a continuous basis.
Activity for wellbeing
Being over-weight puts you at a greater risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, diabetes and some cancers. Being overweight also increases the likelihood of bone and joint pain and inactivity can put you at higher risk of osteoporosis. Increased, regular activity can prevent or significantly reduce the impact of these disorders.
Increased, regular activity has also been proven to have a positive impact on anxiety and stress related disorders and has a beneficial effect on depressive conditions - without the side effects of medication.
Increasing activity releases endorphins in your brain that make you feel good and feel less stressed and anxious. Before, you may have got this ‘fix’ from overeating - but now you have broken that connection - a much better way to achieve that natural high is through increased activity.
For general wellbeing, keeping active on a regular basis will make you feel and look good, keep you mobile and strong as you get older, help with joint pain, improve circulation, help you sleep better and positively influence a wide range of health issues. You should consult your doctor if you have any concerns about increasing your activity levels.
What is ‘Being Active?’
Becoming more active is easy. Anything that increases your heart rate, gets you breathing harder and makes you warm is aerobic activity. Aerobic activity gets your heart and muscles working harder and that causes you to use up more energy and therefore lose weight. It stimulates your metabolism to generate more energy for your muscles to work and gets it working more efficiently.
You might have noticed your heart rate increasing when you do things like housework, gardening, climbing the stairs, carrying shopping bags or walking the dog. This is all activity and it is all good for weight loss and wellbeing. Do a bit more of it and feel and see the benefits. It doesn’t have to be called exercise to be good for you! Walking is one of the best and easiest ways of keeping active and it’s simple to fit in to your routine. You can start off walking a bit more each day - perhaps walking to the shops instead of taking the car, or walking the kids to school - and then increase the activity level of your walking routine by extending your route or varying the terrain.
Being active also means getting ‘involved’. Getting fit and active is fun and you can combine it with meeting new people and doing something different and rewarding. Perhaps participating in a charity walk, volunteering at a youth group, organising events, or joining a golf club for example - these give you the opportunity to get involved with other people and activities and get fit at the same time.
Maximising the power
However you choose to be more active, you can start with as little or as much as you want and build up to a level of activity that supports your weight loss approach and enhances your wellbeing. Sometimes however you might allow yourself to let feelings of lethargy (a general feeling of listlessness or dis-inclination to do anything) prevent you from being more active and find it difficult to break out of the lethargy cycle. i.e. you feel lacking in energy so you don’t bother to do anything active, you feel down about being inactive and so feel less likely to do anything about it, compounding your low energy levels and feelings of lethargy. You can easily break out of this cycle and feel the benefits of being more active -boosting your energy and mood. Carry out the following Action to set you off on a more active lifestyle and use it anytime you have feelings of lethargy creeping up on you.
Action: 16: Maximise the Power - Limit the Lethargy
Think of the way you act when you have thought about exercising but feel disinclined to get going - maybe you can even visualise what you look or act like when you feel this way. What picture do you get in your head at the moment you decide you can’t be bothered to exercise? (Maybe you imagine yourself sweaty and uncomfortable or panting with exhaustion for example) Create that picture in your mind, and imagine being at that moment with that thought and picture in your head.
Give yourself a shake, and think of someone that is motivated and determined to succeed in all areas of their life (you don’t need to know them personally), what would you act like if you had those qualities? Bring a picture to mind of you being motivated and determined to bring yourself to better health and perfect wellbeing. See this image as a picture - make any changes you need to the picture to make it something that is completely acceptable in your life. Give yourself a little shake again.
Now close your eyes and imagine a computer screen in front of you with the old picture (the one of you with the old, undesired behaviour) filling the screen. Make the picture big and bright. Feel like you are stepping into the old you so that you are actually there looking out from your own eyes. In the bottom left hand corner of the screen imagine the new picture of the motivated you as a small, dark picture, where you can see yourself in the picture.
Very quickly, have the 2 images swap places so the new, motivated you fills the screen as a big, bright image - and the old image minimises to the small, dark image in the corner - imagine a ‘whooshing’ noise as they swap places.
Allow the screen to go blank and open your eyes.
Repeat the fast swapping process many times (up to 10 or 12 times) - clearing the screen and opening your eyes between each time. This should be done super fast. Keep going until you cannot easily bring the old image to mind.
After several times of doing this you will find that it is difficult to bring the old image back up and you will feel like you are fully inside the new image of yourself - being motivated and determined to exercise.
Now close your eyes again and think of a situation where it is an ideal time for you to go and exercise. How do you feel now? If you are feeling motivated and determined - let the feeling grow and the image to get brighter and more appealing - and then squeeze your left hand into a fist as you keep the feeling going. Release your fist and open your eyes. (If you are not feeling motivated and determined in this situation go back and repeat the picture swapping exercise, but think carefully about the ‘old you’ image - make sure it is something you can fully associate with (something real) - at the point where you would decide NOT to go ahead and exercise).
You will now find that in the future where you experience the decision making point where you decide whether to exercise or not - instead of that trigger evoking feelings of lethargy - you will feel motivated to exercise. You can maximise this power and keep it going by squeezing your left hand into a fist!
The key to fitting additional activity into your life is to make it varied, interesting, enjoyable and convenient. A lot of people claim to not have the time or opportunity to exercise or be more active - perhaps because they work full time or have small children or other commitments. The truth is that everyone can be more active if they find appropriate ways to do it.
Both the UK Chief Medical Officer and the US Department of Health recommend 150 minutes of moderate intensity aerobic exercise every week for adults in order to improve health. This is 30 minutes a day spread over 5 days or a little more than 21 minutes a day over 7 days. Of course if you do more, you will increase your energy-out to energy-in differential and lose weight more quickly. Exercising in small ‘chunks’ is just as effective as longer sessions, so fitting in two 10 minute brisk walks or a play in the park with the kids could be more than an adequate amount of extra activity for one day for example.
If you work full time, you could easily find time to walk at lunch time or on the way to or from work. Perhaps get on or off the bus a couple of stops away from your usual or park further away from the office, or use the stairs more. Those short bursts of activity add up and you will soon see the benefit.
If you are at home with children - use their natural pre-disposition to be active to your advantage and start walking more with them - noticing all the new things you see or experience. Play in the park, invest in a bike with a child seat or trailer, go swimming, play football - the only limit to the activity and fun is your own and your kids’ imaginations - and they will love it.
Look for and notice opportunities throughout your day to add to your activity levels and clock up those energy expending minutes. Welcome the opportunities as a resource to bring you closer and closer to your weight loss and fitness outcomes and feel good about yourself for taking them.
If you want to be more formal about your activity times - make appointments with yourself and don’t break them. Commit by writing your appointments to exercise in your diary - like you would with an arrangement to meet another person, and stick to it.
Most of all - make activity an integral part of your life. Enjoy being an active person. If you find yourself slumped in front of the TV - get up and move around, do something else - make a pact with yourself not to be immobile for long periods of time (unless of course you are sleeping!). Small bursts of activity add up and do you good.
Focused thinking
You can add suggestions to your focused thinking to build on your motivation and determination to be active and promote your physical wellbeing. This will support the changes you have already made and re-enforce them at an unconscious level.
For example:
“I find opportunities throughout my day to be active and enjoy the feeling of exercising my body and the benefits that brings”
“Whenever I have been inactive for a period of time I have the urge to get up, move around, and get my heart beating faster and blood pumping to my muscles”
“I make a determined effort to walk more throughout the day - finding ways to build walking into my normal routine”
“I enjoy the health benefits that being active brings. I feel more energetic and full of life. I like the way that my body becomes more toned and slim and notice the admiring glances I get from other people”
Listen regularly to the recording that accompanies this part. It supports what you have learnt and helps to make changes at an unconscious level to make them part of your normal day-to-day lifestyle.
Taking stock
Part 3 focused on promoting and supporting your weight loss by increasing your activity levels. It gave you information and motivational techniques to make exercise and activity an integral part of your life. By incorporating healthy eating and exercise into your lifestyle along with the changes you have made to your relationship with food, you are giving yourself what you need to stay slim and healthy.
Congratulations on completing Inside-Out Weight Loss and I sincerely hope that you continue to benefit from the freedom to live your life in your own, naturally balanced state.
www.inside-outweightloss.com gives you additional support in your weight loss outcomes and creating your future. Please also feel free to contact me using the contact details on the website if you would like further information regarding weight loss, NLP or Hypnotherapy.