Mind Set – the Key to Health

Now here’s a challenge for you.

Do you want to change something in your life for the better?

Have you wanted to make that change for a long time?

What’s stopping you?

Most likely it’s what’s between your ears that keeps you stalemated. Thoughts always precede actions. So if your actions don’t match your desires, the road block is in your mind.

Whoa, let’s get our minds on our side!

In the next several posts of Be Wise-Health Wise we’ll look at just how to do that – get our minds on our side. The mind is a powerful thing. We don’t want to waste it.

These articles on “Mind Set” can apply to anything that you want to change, such as:

Eating better for a life-long healthy body

Becoming more active

Getting more restful sleep

Losing weight

Decreasing or stopping your caffeine intake

In this series, we’re using changing our mind set to achieve “healthy weight loss” as the example. But just substitute whatever you want to change where you read “healthy weight loss” because the principles are the same for any change you want to make.

Please share your experiences with us in making healthy mind set changes.

Have fun. Here’s the first post.

 1 Change Your Focus

 Let’s face it. Everything we do starts in the mind. Your mind can be your best friend or your worst enemy. Let’s make it your best friend.

You are your best friend. We’re supposed to love others as we love ourselves. So loving yourself is important. I want the best for you. May you truly want the very best for yourself.

So what does a real honest loyal friend do? A friend tells you the truth with love. A friend encourages you at all times. A friend helps you overcome obstacles in your life. A friend supports you in your endeavors. A friend recognizes lies about your self-image and helps you understand the truth instead.

To make your mind your best friend, start honestly analyzing what it says to you. Start recognizing the lies it may tell you and replace them with the truth.

Do you hear your mind saying, “Weight loss is impossible for me.”

What is the truth? What can you say to counteract that lie? How can you turn your mind into a positive force in your life?

How about changing your focus? Instead of always thinking of how you can’t lose weight, see yourself embarking on a wonderful new adventure.

You now have a whole new way of looking at your life. It’s not about what you have to give up. It’s not about deprivation.

It’s all about what you gain. It’s all about how great you feel and how healthy you can be to do the things you want to do, to fulfill your purposes on earth.

Attaining weight loss has become the main goal in most people’s minds. Let’s change that right now to focusing on a “healthy weight” for your uniquely-you body. Let’s have fun doing the healthy things that will have the wonderful side effect of you achieving your healthy life long weight.

As an example, let me share with you the things that happened to shift me into choosing to eat healthier food. In the early 1980’s my gut was a mess. It hurt and felt bloated. There were so many foods that I could not eat. And other parts of my anatomy were a mess too.

So I started looking for help. As a physician I knew that I wouldn’t find it in the conventional type of medicine in which I had been trained. Fortunately, a doctor who was treating patients with nutrition and alternative allergy care kindly allowed me to observe his practice.

I liked the results he was getting with his patients and asked him to treat me. When he said, “Jo, you need to stop eating sugar and other sweets”, I thought, “Oh I can stop for a month and then it will be ok to go back to eating sweets.” That thought was a sure sign of a sugar addict.

But stopping the sweets showed me how much better I felt when I left them out of my meals and how much worse I felt when I ate them. I distinctly remember the dinner cruise my husband and I were enjoying when at the end of the meal the waiter set a piece of apple pie in front of me.

I thought, “Do I want to enjoy the taste of this pie for 5 minutes and then feel rotten and miserable for the 5 days it will take to get this stuff out of my system or do I want to continue feeling great right now?” I chose health at that very moment. And I have never regretted it.

You see, healthy food eventually helped me feel cleaner, more alert, and more vivacious with more energy and stamina to do the things I love. Now almost thirty years later in my mid-sixties I’m participating in events that I didn’t have time for in my younger years.

On Labor Day every year for the past 11 years I’ve enjoyed completing a sprint triathlon, swimming almost ½ mile in a lake, followed by biking 10 miles in the mountains and finishing with a 4 ½ mile mountainous run. The rest of the year I keep up those sports to stay in shape for the next triathlon.

That’s just an example of how well you can feel and what you can do when you choose a healthy lifestyle and a positive mind set. You most likely will choose other activities, things that appeal to you.

But here’s the main point:

Let’s focus on doing what’s healthy and fun. Weight loss will be a good side effect.

Blessings,

Dr. Jo