One expert says these little white lies keep us fat!
Colin Christopher, a certified clinical hypnotherapist and author of the book Success Through Manipulation, has helped his patients lose weight for the past 15 years. Even though he noticed that his patients who kept jumping from diet to diet and couldn’t lose weight were constantly lying to themselves, he never realized how destructive this behavior really was until he gained 30 pounds and was lying to himself about it.
Here are some of the lies Christopher told himself – and how he manipulated his own thinking to get healthy:
- Eating healthy food allows me to eat junk food because it balances out. Over the last year I was constantly on the road promoting my book, giving speeches and eating out…a lot. To balance out the junk I ate, I’d have a salad and eat my veggies, but eating healthy apps did not eliminate the main courses, the late night fast food binges, or the desserts servers suggested that I had to try. I was lying to myself that healthy food would make up for the bad and it was keeping me fat.
- Exercise in small amounts is a hall pass to eat in excess. I was a competitive swimmer for 10 years. At my peak, I was training 4 hours a day 6 days a week and burning a lot of calories. This allowed me to eat anything I wanted, as much as I wanted, whenever I wanted. Now I exercise on average 4 times a week for sixty minutes. Obviously, this amount of exercise does not need the fuel load competitive swimming required. True- if I ate garbage once in awhile, exercise helped burn off the excess, but the sustained garbage I was putting into my body was building up. I was lying to myself that the exercise I was doing was enough to keep me slim and it was keeping me fat.
- My slim clothes fit a bigger me just fine. I’ve always enjoyed my pants feeling a little loose. Somehow, even though I was 30 pounds heavier, I could still fit into my pants… sort of. The pants were so restrictive that I had to inhale tightly to put them on; I could no longer wear a belt and I couldn’t bend over to touch my toes. I thought, “Well, I can still fit into my pants, so I’m still ok.” I was lying to myself about my clothes still fitting and it was keeping me fat.
- I can lose the weight in a few months when I’m not as busy. On the road, it was difficult to make healthy choices and easy to take the path of least resistance- grabbing a bag of chips and skipping a workout. I kept telling myself, “When I get home, I’m going to stop eating garbage, go to the gym and start fresh.” I got home, started fresh, and 2 days later I was eating garbage again. I kept starting over instead of sticking with it while traveling or at home. The reality is it’s always difficult to make the healthy choice instead of taking the easy way out and eating that delicious pizza, fries and pecan pies. I was lying to myself about starting over the next day or the next week, and it was keeping me fat.
What are some little white lies you tell yourself?
