A Guide to Good Health: Using the Secret for Weight Loss

Have you ever lost weight only to regain it months later? Does good health seem elusive because you can't stick to a healthy eating plan? The Secret, a movie and book by Rhonda Byrne, claims that this is because a focus on weight loss actually attracts weight to your body. With extra weight comes health problems and an increased focus and awareness of these problems. This increased focus does nothing more than push that elusive good health even further away.

The basic premise of The Secret is that we live in a universe that operates within the laws of attraction. What that means is that everything we have in our life, we have attracted. This includes our extra weight and our health problems. From this, it becomes evident that if we want to lose weight and maintain good health, we should change our thinking.

There are many things we say to ourselves every day that attract more weight and poor health to our bodies. In order to overcome our issues, we need to rewrite our internal dialogues. Here are some common sayings and alternatives that you can use to change your dialogue.

I am on a low carbohydrate diet.

Many people follow specific diet plans, such as the low carbohydrate Atkins diet or South Beach diet, low sugar diets or low fat diets. If you find a diet or healthy eating plan that works for you, then stick with it. But, often the dialogue that goes hand in hand with these diets is self-defeating. Some people announce to the world that they are avoiding carbs, sugar or fat. They tell themselves that they are addicted to these things and have trouble resisting them. These are their problem foods.

What they actually are doing is focusing on these foods and attracting more of these types of foods to their body. They may use will power for a few weeks and successfully follow the eating plan, but sooner or later, the cravings for these irresistible foods will take over. How many times have you dieted in this manner, only to go off the diet and end up overdoing it on the forbidden food?

Instead of running this same old dialogue in your mind each time you diet, change it. Tell yourself that you prefer healthy foods. If someone asks you why you aren't eating desert, don't tell them you are avoiding sugar right now. Announce that you prefer a piece of fruit for desert. If a bag of potato chips is staring you in the face, don't tell yourself you are depriving yourself or try to convince yourself to have just one. Instead, tell yourself that you prefer fresh vegetables for a snack.

I want to lose 20 pounds.

By focusing on the weight you want to lose, you are in fact, attracting this weight to your body. This is why so many dieters are initially successful, only to regain the weight months later. Once you have lost that 20 pounds, you congratulate yourself for losing it. People compliment you and you proudly announce that you lost weight. All of this attracts the weight back to you.

Instead of focusing on the weight loss, focus on what you want. You want to be healthy. You want to have more energy. You want to enjoy healthy foods. When people compliment you and ask if you've lost weight, tell them you are focusing on good health.

I hate exercise.

Announcing to yourself that you hate exercise and have to force yourself to do it isn't going to get you very far. For a few weeks, it may get you off the couch, but after that, those work outs will become fewer and further apart until you are right back to where you started. We all want to follow a fitness plan because we know it's the healthy thing to do, but attracting a dislike for it will make it impossible to follow.

Instead, focus on what you love about exercise. Tell yourself that when you exercise, you feel great. Exercise gives you energy. Announce to your family that you love to exercise. You love to walk in the fresh air. Soon, you will be making exercise a priority without even trying because you will be attracting it to your life.

I have no energy and my knee hurts.

If you have a legitimate health issue, see your doctor. But, many of us, day in and day out, focus on the little aches and pains and lack of energy that we have from our unhealthy lifestyle. These minor symptoms can get in the way of our healthy eating and fitness plans. We feel tired, so we grab something sugary or caffeine filled to give us an energy boost. We feel overwhelmed, so we numb our stress with food and TV time instead of our nightly walk. Our arthritis is acting up, so we decide to skip our workout.

Instead of focusing on feeling awful, focus on feeling good. Tell yourself that you feel great, even when you don't. Continue to practice your healthy habits and remind yourself that healthy food and exercise make you feel good.

Using The Secret to think your way to good health and weight loss isn't about being in denial about your problems. It's about changing your focus to the things you really want. Do you want that extra 20 pounds and to feel tired all the time? Or, do you want to have the thin, healthy, energetic body you've always dreamed about? Make it a reality. Live like you already have that body. Now is the time.