The Magic Pill for Weight Loss: Part 2

Continued from Part 1

You develop inner strength through self-integrity. Self-integrity simply put, is “how much truth are you willing to look at in your life and what are you prepared to do about it?” It’s about doing what you say you’re going to do — keeping your promises to yourself — in developing your character. Don’t confuse this with personal integrity, which is about keeping your promises to others. In fact, it’s not uncommon for people to have a high degree of personal integrity but little or no self-integrity.

This disconnect between self and personal integrity is exactly why focusing on self-nurturing and limit setting doesn’t work for these people when it comes to weight loss. If the only integrity they know is that which comes from keeping their promises to others, then putting themselves first and having to say no to others is too much of a risk for them. It’s unfair to expect these people to simply start liking and taking care of themselves better.

The good news is, practicing self-integrity can start small. There’s no need to compromise your personal integrity. Typically what happens is, as you start keeping small promises to yourself, you’re less likely to over promise to others. It’s actually the over promising that puts you in the untenable position of having to say no to others in the first place.

At first glance, self-integrity may appear to be a lot like willpower but it’s vastly different. Willpower stems from imposed discipline whereas self-integrity stems from personal choice. Each has a distinct dialogue associated with it. For example, upon keeping a promise to yourself such as a workout that day, willpower grumbles “I’m glad that’s over with” while self-integrity states “I did it”. Willpower relies on sheer force because it doesn’t have a deeper, caring conviction. Self-integrity does. Roughly translated, “I did it” means “I love me”.

Why is this dialogue significant? Because each time you affirm “I did it”, you create an increment of positive evidence in your life. Creating positive evidence is every bit as tangible as making a deposit to a bank account. The two actions generate the same feelings of satisfaction. And the name on that bank account? You guessed it… inner strength. It’s no coincidence that people discover inner strength to be very palpable.

A word of caution here… it stands to reason that if you can build inner strength through deposits, you can just as readily erode it through withdrawals. Each time you have to say “I didn�t do it” regarding one of your promises, you create an increment of negative evidence. Make enough withdrawals and you’ll soon be living on credit, putting yourself back in survivor mode.

Don’t kid yourself. This happens more frequently than all of us would like to admit. Some might call it human nature. One of the most valuable things a life coach provides is an on-going environment of respect and accountability to ensure you keep your promises to yourself.

The notion of deposits and withdrawals underscores a profound truth. How you practice self-integrity (your promises) and manage your inner strength (your account) changes what you believe to be true for yourself. Read that again until you grasp the magnitude of that statement. Self-integrity and inner strength change everything for you — how much you trust yourself, care for yourself, expect of yourself and so on. Applying these concepts effectively in your life will create the permanent weight loss that no pill, diet or exercise alone could ever do for you.