In the first 2 articles I reviewed the idea that diets usually help people lose the weight but often drop the ball with helping people understand why they can’t keep the weight off long term. You can click here and here to read the first two articles.

I also discussed what’s often called self sabotage, a process by which we personally get in the way of our own progress in life. That means you lose the weight during a diet, finally find a partner that you enjoy, save some money, get a promotion etc but you end up gaining the weight back, destroying the relationship, blowing the money and getting fired. Self sabotage is only a symptom of key belief systems we hold regarding what we think we deserve in life. Our lives and our bodies are nothing more than what we think we deserve.

Our lives, our health and our weight etc are mirror reflections of our belief systems regarding self care, self acceptance, self love and self respect. If our belief systems aren’t addressed and modified during a diet, those belief systems are always waiting for us when the diet is over. Old belief systems = our old weight.

We can’t really see our belief systems on a chalk board anywhere, in black and white, yet the results in our lives can give us a very good view into what belief systems we hold. Looking at our life results, trying to identify patterns in our behaviour and then working backwards toward understanding the belief systems that would produce such results is where all this starts.

In summary our weight and health situation is what I call the crime scene. We have the physical body and that’s where we start the investigation. Our physical body (weight, health, cellulite, skin integrity, mental stability etc) reflects how we treat ourselves during a day. How we treat ourselves during the day is based on what belief system we hold, regarding what we were taught we deserve in life. The part of our behaviour and personality that attempts to keep us where we are in life is what many call the self saboteur. Our self saboteur is our belief system in action, trying to sabotage any attempt we make to better ourselves.

Here’s a real life example of all this in action. Judy has joined every diet center in the area but either can’t keep the weight off or eats highly toxic cheat foods while on the diet. (she knows this is illogical) Judy either over exercises or doesn’t exercise at all. Home exercise equipment, she never uses, litters the home. Judy tells people disease runs in her family and she’s always at the doctor’s office. Judy constantly declares she doesn’t really like vegetables and that she’s genetically big boned. She has joined every fitness club in the area at least once but has never really attended for more than 1-2 months. Judy smokes cigarettes and says she needs to them “to relax”. She also says she needs her wine to “unwind” and needs her take out food to give herself (and her kids) “a break”.

Can you see the self saboteur creeping around in Judy’s life/mind/actions? Can you see the battle between what she really wants in her life and what she was taught she deserves? Can you see two different parts of her personality going to battle or war with each other? How much does a life long war like this cost Judy financially? (one part buys the treadmill and the other part doesn’t use it etc) How much energy do you think it takes to go to war with yourself everyday? (one part smoking cigarettes and the other part trying to wrestle the cigarettes out of her hand etc) Do you think a war like this could make Judy feel tired or depressed? If you look at Judy, which part of the personality do you think is winning?

Maybe it’s time to find a health coach who knows how to talk to the self saboteur and makes friends with him/her, so both parts of the personality can work together. That’s covered in the next article.

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