Program your thoughts daily

The quality of your life is directly related to the quality of your thoughts. So, it is important to have a daily habit of keeping your thoughts on track. If you believe it is difficult to lose weight, or to get beyond a plateau, then that becomes your reality. On the other hand, if you believe you will achieve weight loss and overcome any impasse, this too will become your reality. It has been said many times that ‘whatever you truly expect is what you will experience.'To keep your thoughts congruent with who you really are and with principles of success, you must continually work to counteract negative thoughts. If you find it difficult to think in a positive fashion, then it becomes important to ‘feed your mind' with positive thinking books or CD's, or be around supportive and positive people.The work you do on yourself is the most important work you will do in your life. The rest of your world falls into place when you are centered.How do you reprogram your thoughts and thereby change your reality? You do it by maintaining a constant flow of inspiration into your eyes and ears from the moment you wake up to the moment you fall asleep at night. Also, choose carefully the words that come out of your mouth. Never speak negatively about yourself, and this will become your reality. Thoughts and words like "I can't do this, it's too hard” lead to excess eating and lack of exercise. Replace them with "I will overcome this difficult situation somehow.”We have inner thoughts and feelings that manifest themselves in our behaviors. You must learn to expect good things from yourself because that is why you were created. We all carry emotional baggage from the past, and likely are in some sort of difficult situation now and again which challenges our ability to think positively. You cannot accept that you feel inadequate or incompetent or used; you must make a deliberate effort to focus on an accurate positive picture of yourself in order to counteract the negative influences you will encounter throughout the day.It is tough, but you must try to keep the right picture of yourself and maintain a strong sense of worthiness, ensuring that your expectations for the day, as well as for the future, are expanded as wide and as large as possible.Daily I see examples of people overcoming seemingly impossible situations from their past and present. I see examples of incredible strength and perseverance. Do these individuals possess something that others do not? Not really, they simply had a desire to change. But, the first change had to be emotional. They had to learn to think positively, to believe they could achieve weight loss, or achieve a level of fitness that they previously didn't feel was possible. They learned to expect some degree of success, and strive not to get discouraged.I'll end with a profound quote by Mahatma Ghandi: "If I believe I cannot do something, it makes me incapable of doing it. But when I believe I can, then I acquire the ability to do it, even if I did not have the ability in the beginning.”Just keep trying. Keep a positive attitude, and don't ever give up. You can do it!Dr. Doug