Skinny Mind Words: Can Positive Language Help You Lose Weight?

If you wanted to lose weight, do you think the words you used and the words you heard from others would make a difference in your success? I have a hunch they would. Let’s talk about how words help and hinder us, and what Skinny Mind words can do for us instead.

What does it take to lose weight? What words and images come up for you when you think about losing weight? Is it eating less than 1200 calories a day or eating nothing at all? Is it working on the treadmill till all your muscles scream in protest? Is it going on an organic diet or a protein diet or a celebrity diet? You may have done it all and written a book (about how it does not work), but you may be missing one of the easiest things you can do to support yourself in losing weight: changing your own language and tuning out the negative words of others.

This positive linguistic approach is becoming known as Skinny Mind words. Believe it or not, the words we use on ourselves are much more important that the words others apply to us. Who we are physically has everything to do with who we are emotionally and spiritually. The person we become starts very much from the subconscious, then proceeds to the thought, to the visualized, then into the spoken, and is projected into what we see and understand ourselves to be.

More often than not, when you embark on a weight loss program, you put all the focus on your physical body; you are constantly on the scale to see if you have lost half a pound since coffee break; you worry about what you eat and whether your pants are now tighter or looser than they were last week. You spend hours agonizing when your weight loss program is not going as you projected. And while you worry and fret, you do not factor in the impact that your thinking has on whether you can stick to a weight loss plan or on how much weight you lose.

We must choose our words with care because we are what we think and speak. For a day, try walking around with a pen and paper and record every word you use to describe yourself. Do you see things like lousy, loser, klutz, lame, dumb…? The list can be endless. Are you shocked at what you think of yourself, of the negative, degrading terms in which you see yourself? Using Skinny Mind words can transform your thinking. Would your day feel differently if you thought of yourself as beautiful, independent, quick-witted, thoughtful, calm…and other positive words? Judgmental, hurtful words are like a bad habit, but you can make a conscious decision to kick them to the curb and replace them with a habit of encouraging, loving words.

Thinking with Skinny Mind words is a bit like seduction; the less you try, the more effortless it becomes to you. Try shifting your focus from thinking about your weight to thinking about the beautiful things in your life. Instead of agonizing at how much bigger your hips are than the woman ahead of you in the supermarket queue, you could focus on how charming the geraniums you plan for your summer garden will be when they are in full bloom. If you find yourself looking in the mirror, opt to notice your beautiful hair or the bright spirit that shines through your eyes rather than a wrinkle or a double chin.

Choose not to listen to those around you who use negative words. You may be able to control your thoughts so that you mostly generate positivity, but let’s face it, there’s always, always that one person who will have a snide remark or some piece of ‘well intentioned’ malicious advice. By building confidence in yourself and by focusing on other aspects of your life, such people lose power over you. Once you create a balance in your life and reduce your own focus on your weight, the hurt proportionately diminishes. And since you have filled your life with so many other positive thoughts and habits, you will not have the time to focus on the negative or careless words of others.

Here is a fun thing to try, perhaps for a day or just starting with an hour: when you meet a person, or see an object, ascribe only positive adjectives to it. Then be mindful of whether you feel differently. What effect does this have on you?

Another aspect of this experiment could be to resist all positive or negative adjectives and see how it feels to just observe, just watch with an open, learning mind without labeling or judging what you are seeing. There are times, I might suggest, when fewer words are even better than ‘positive words.’

Skinny Mind words apply not only to how you think about yourself, but also to how you think about your environment. By generating an aura of positivity around you, or simply a mindset of accepting whatever is, in its perfection for right now, you infuse your life with happiness. When you can see and feel ‘that which makes you grateful’ and express it in positive language about yourself and the world, it is reflected in your body and wellbeing. One day you may wake up and realize that you’ll never need another ‘weight loss’ diet, unless perhaps it is a Skinny Mind diet.

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