Change Your Mind, Change Your Body, Change Your Life

This powerful phrase, quoted by my favorite spin teacher and friend, John Scarangello, owner of Kinetic Cycling, during a spin class I was in last Friday really hit home for me. It’s 9 simple words, but the power behind these words were paramount.

For years I have suffered from a mild eating disorder, in that whenever I ate something I would think, “This is going to make me fat”. Even if it was a piece of fruit. This thought process came to me a child after seeing all the perfect models and their perfect bodies on the pages of glossy magazines. I thought I needed to look like them for people to like me or even love me. Luckily due to good genetics and being active consistently, I have never been overweight in all my life, but the way I thought about my weight made me feel like I was 400 pounds. I had the wrong eye prescription every time I looked in the mirror, I saw my body much bigger than it was. I was never happy with the way I looked or the way I felt in my body. I would say negative things to myself and starve myself in hopes that someone would notice that I had the perfect body.

Now that I am 40, I have come to a place of acceptance. Yes, there are still times when I think that I am fat or I could tone up here and there, but these thoughts do not occupy my mind like they once did. Guess why? I made a choice to change my mind about how I thought about myself! I made a choice to talk nice to myself. I made a choice to exercise and eat right which makes me feel better about myself and builds my self-confidence and self-esteem.

Think about the power of the mind and how strong it is. What we think can literally come to fruition if we focus on it enough. The universe doesn’t know the difference between negative and positive, it will just bring us more of what we focus on. Maybe I would have become severely overweight if I hadn’t decided to change my mind about food and how I felt about myself. All it takes is a choice, a choice you have the power to make!!! Once you change your mind, everything else changes.

Another one of my favorite quotes by inspirational author and speaker, Wayne Dyer; “Change the way you look at things, and the things you look at change” has the same meaning. If we all just made a decision to eat right, exercise 5-6 days a week and think positively instead of negatively, our lives would be different, our lives would change. We would feel better, look better and be happier.

If you struggle with putting healthy food in your mouth, or exercising on a consistent basis, know that you are the one that has the power to change it. Make the decision today to take a baby step toward change. Choose it, make it happen and enroll people to help you, especially if it has been a life-long struggle. I get that sometimes it’s “not that easy,” and you may need extra support, so find that support, and that’s what I mean by taking a baby step! You will start to notice that your whole world looks and feels different and that is the power of 9 little words!

Thanks John!!!

To check out Kinetic Cycling and John’s spin classes, visit his site at www.kineticcycling.com