What came first the idea or the result? The idea came first. Ideas determine our life experience and the idea determines success or failure, prosperity or poverty, fit or fat.

An idea firmly held is a belief. A belief is an idea about the nature of our selves and our environment. A thought repeated over and over with some feeling attached to it can become a belief. That belief then will be acted upon in some manner. It will be accepted by the subconscious where its effect will be carried on more or less automatically. These beliefs are held by our conscious mind, yet many times go unexamined. They are just assumed to be true - accepted as fact.

So what does any of this have to do with being under or overweight? Everything as you will see. We will concentrate on the overweight condition for the moment because that is the most frequently occurring problem, but the same logic applies to the underweight condition. So once again we must address the subject of beliefs. The first belief is one of being overweight. You look in the mirror or step on the scale and have the thought that you are fat. If the thought is repeated with some feeling and emotion, it can become a firmly held idea about yourself - a belief. And again, this belief will move to the subconscious where it is acted upon automatically. You will eat to maintain the belief. If you decide that you must go on a diet because you believe you are fat, you may temporarily lose weight, but you may have to struggle with the process. You will be fighting yourself. On the one hand you believe that you are fat and your going on a diet is a direct affirmation of the fact as you see it. On the other hand you desire to lose weight.

You believe that you are overweight because you eat too much, but the fact is you eat too much because you believe that you are fat. What must be done is to change your belief in the face of contrary physical evidence. Keep in mind that you created the "evidence" in the first place.

So you tell yourself that you are thin. You change your eating habits to bring this about, but you still struggle. The gains are only temporary. The issue here is that there are probably other beliefs held by you that are working against your goal of losing weight. You may believe you are unworthy - you don"t deserve to look attractive. Perhaps you fear intimate relationships - afraid of getting hurt again. You may keep yourself looking unattractive just to keep potential mates uninterested. You may fear for your physical safety and maintain a few extra pounds to keep from being "pushed around". There can be others. It is up to you to discover what they are. All your ideas about yourself, other people, and your environment are held in your conscious mind. They are not hidden away. They are there to be examined by you. If you don"t like what you see, then change your ideas in order to change your experience.

There are several techniques that can be used to change your beliefs. The first step, however, is determining what they are. Write them down. Writing them is probably the most effective way to this discovery. And be honest. This is a personal undertaking and the only person you will be fooling is yourself.

So you have assembled your list, now what do you do with them. The answer is try and determine the core beliefs and deal with them one at a time. A core belief is a main belief around which other subsidiary beliefs can form. If you change the core belief, the other subsidiary beliefs will change too or just fade away. Let us take the subject of unworthiness. You must determine why you feel unworthy. Maybe you feel that you don"t look as attractive as your favorite movie actress. Maybe on some objective level you aren"t, but that movie actress can feel unattractive herself and have her own issues of unworthiness. Perhaps you believe that the older you get the less attractive you will become or that your physical health will fade. These are all ideas in your mind not rock bed reality. Change your beliefs and you experience will change also.

This subject of beliefs and their effect on our life experience is a big subject and will be discussed in greater detail in subsequent articles. However, for our purposes here today try and determine some core beliefs that may be affecting your decision to overeat. If your issue is one of feeling unattractive, a simple statement such as "I am attractive and well proportioned" said over and over may do the trick. This repetition is called an affirmation. Just sit for five minutes and no more and repeat that statement to yourself, either out loud or to yourself. For this period, try and feel the statement as you say it and do not allow your mind to drift to other thoughts. It is very important to feel the words as you say them. This is not just a mental exercise. You want to involve your emotions and your body in the process. Remember the original idea - the one that you are trying to replace - was accepted by you not just as some random thought, but rather an idea that you put some emotion behind.

If you are not able at this time to determine some beliefs behind this habit of overeating, then use the affirmation "I am thin and well proportioned", but continue in your efforts of determining your beliefs. There are a few tips that will make your affirmations more effective. Keep the statements short and don"t allow other thoughts to intrude while saying your affirmation. Also try to do it in an environment where there is nothing to distract you like a barking dog or other loud noises. You want to be sharply focused for this five minute period. Also try to avoid mental images from appearing during this period. And once this is done, let it go. You are not to think about your weight or other issues related to this during the day. Dwelling on the problem will only prolong it.

We will discuss the topic of visualization at a later time. Visualization is also an important tool we will be using.

In terms of what foods to eat and what to avoid, most people know what to avoid. But if their beliefs held are in conflict with their desire to lose weight, the belief will win out every time and the person will over eat and probably eat the wrong foods knowing full well those food items should be avoided. .