What Do You Think?

“As a man thinks in his heart so is he.”

Crum et al (2007) showed that this Biblical principle applies to weight loss and fitness. Eight-four women who clean hotel rooms for a living were divided into two groups. One served as the control group while the other was told (falsely) that their occupation fulfilled the Surgeon General’s standard for an active life. Behaviors did not change between the two groups but the latter were given examples of how their work was the equivalent to significant exercise. These women began to believe that they were now athletic. Their bodies responded by losing weight, lowering body fat, lowering blood pressure, and decreasing their body mass index and waist to hip ratio!

Again no change in actual behavior had occurred.

So shall we just think ourselves thin, strong, fast? If you try it and it works please let me and the world know. My recommendation is simply to recognize that your thoughts are a critical element to your success or failure.

It might be a good idea to inventory the thoughts you have about your athletic or weight loss goals. I don’t expect you to jot down every one of your 50,000-100,000 daily thoughts but do try to note recurring themes such as “I’ll never lose weight, my entire family is overweight” or “I always choke in races” or “I’m too slow, too old, too lazy to ever win.” Also note self-messages like “that was a great workout, you are really on track” or I’m getting faster and I feel so good!” You probably already know which type of self-talk you are experiencing. You just may not realize how much it is impacting your achievements.

Negative self-talk produces momentary stress relief by making it seem that there is nothing to be done. In the long run it will hamper performance. It is not unlike the dieter who eats a chocolate bar for the temporary happiness it brings even though the consequences of doing so repeatedly is the antithesis of what will help reach weight-loss goals. Owning up to the fact that you are getting something by being negative will actually help you change the habit. It feels good to have an excuse. It feels better to succeed.

In the weeks ahead I’ll mostly be writing on how to gain and maintain a sound body part of the equation but I’m counting on you to avoid futility and hopelessness in your thoughts. Choose to believe that as you apply sound fitness principles that they will work for you. Trying to improve is stressful and this stress won’t disappear. But you will be better equipped to handle it when you give a little thought to your thoughts.