By Toronto Life & Mindset Alignment Coach Stephanie J. Marshall

Why The Next 10 Pounds?

Last May I decided I was sick of complaining about my jeans being tight and I used the Alignment Coaching tools to lose 10 pounds fairly easily over a few months. I’ve kept it off, and now I want to use the tools again to uplevel my eating habits.

I caught myself thinking that it was going to be hard this time so I went to revisit my post about the first 10 pounds to remind myself of the experience. There was some smart stuff, so I thought I’d share again since these principles can be used to change any habit.

To be upfront, I’m not obsessed with “10 pounds” specifically, except that it sounds like a fun number, and I suspect that my body will go there fairly easily when I make a few more tweaks toward healthy eating.

This time I am going to use the coaching tools to:
a) Master dealing with cravings
b) Stop re-negotiating with myself

Losing 10 Pounds with Alignment Coaching

Mindset shifts are the easiest way to change your habits, but it doesn’t work overnight.

To start I didn’t set any goals or rules and instead just did targetted mindset work with the Alignment Framework tools.

This allowed me to uncover some buried beliefs I was holding on to and to start exploring some more useful beliefs. I used the Kickstartology “Self-Image Manifesto” to start shifting my self-image with regard to my eating habits and a month later I started organically experimenting with making different decisions. Soon I started seeing a difference in how the jeans fit.

Speed & Force Doesn’t Work

One of the most common mistakes people make is when they are impatient and trying to speed up the results by setting really hard rules and impossible goals for themselves. You may be very motivated when you make those decisions, but the problem is:
1. Motivation and excitement are not sustainable.
2. Impatience is based on wanting to escape the current situation instead of the results you want to create, which has been proven to be less effective for sustained change.
 

Acceptance & Curiosity

There’s nuance in mindset work, and the Alignment Coaching program makes it easy to catch yourself and see exactly what’s going on. Working on finding the patience to be brutally honest and curious with yourself will have a dramatic impact on your results.  

And that’s the thing about mindset work until you APPLY the tools to yourself in your specific situation, you are not going to understand precisely what needs to change in order for you to get the results you are looking for.

It’s not theoretical, it requires more than an intellectual understanding.

It’s like doing pushups, you might understand intellectually how to do 50 pushups, but it doesn’t mean you can drop down and do it.

Do This:

Now imagine yourself in the future when you have already succeeded in this change. The new habits have just become a regular part of your life. From this place answer the following questions:

1. I made it easy for myself to build this habit by ________
2. The first small thing I committed to consistently was __________
3. I’m so happy I started working on this when I did because now _______
4. When it was hard or I fell off track, I kept going by _____

Answer those questions every day and you’re going to figure it out.

You’ve got this! 

-SJM