Published:
10/24/2011 05:25pm
A Weight-Loss Miracle You Can Have, Too!
A Weight-Loss Miracle You Can Have, Too!
By Debbie Johnson, Best-Selling Author,
Think Yourself Thin
I felt like a failure until I discovered a secret. It wasn’t what I ate, but what I imagined. I gained forty pounds dieting, lost it all using “Thinking Thin”- techniques I developed, and kept it off over twenty-five years! If I can do it, so can you!
Here’s How it Started: Puberty Hits and Dad Goes Nuts
At age fourteen I was feeling happy and pretty in my favorite skirt, my father walking behind me. But then Dad said something that I will never forget, “Gettin’ kind of broad across the beam, aren’t you kid?”
I was heartbroken! I loved Dad, so I thought he might be right. I must be getting fat!
Since Weight Watchers had worked for my mom, I thought I would try it.
I hated having to put mustard in my tuna fish instead of mayonnaise. That jump-started my brain; my pants were only tight because they had shrunk in the dryer! But I still had weight-gain fear in my subconscious mind. Little did I know, I was programming myself for failure.
College and Engagement
I was in high school and in love with a college boy!
Within a year we were engaged to be married. But soon after, he broke up with me. My self-esteem plummeted and I started gaining weight.
I started a diet, but I was always hungry. You know how diets work. They don’t. My metabolism started slowing down from yo-yo dieting, of course, and I gained the weight back after each successive diet, and more. Typical.
Out of College and Still Dieting
I’m just as heavy, but totally into health foods. That should fix it, right? Wrong!
Everyone I knew was fasting to “cleanse their body.” I hoped no one knew that secretly I wanted to lose weight, but I gained more weight after each fast.
All told, I gained forty pounds fasting and dieting over about ten years. What was I to do?
The Power of Love and Imagination
I decided I needed to love and accept myself the way I was. Nothing else worked!
Once I did that, seeing myself as a Rubenesque work of art, it took very little time for me to realize that I could play a game with myself. I could use all the techniques I used to be successful in sales and marketing: my divine gift of imagination! Imagination helped me soar to the top of every sales team I was on. Why not try it for my weight?
I immediately started coming up with ideas of how I would get thin with my imagination and it worked magically!
Eating Whatever I Wanted
Here’s the most amazing, surprising part of all; I ate whatever I darn well pleased: ice cream, cookies! I just ate them in more moderate amounts.
And low-fat? Forget it. I love butter, oils of all kind, and lots of salad dressing.
Exercise? I feel like I want to get out and move every day. Why? Because I’m constantly imagining my slim, strong image, so my subconscious is programmed for keeping me healthy. It’s become such a habit, I just do it without even realizing I do. In fact, while I am writing this, I have been munching on one of my favorites, Cheetos. And guess what; I stopped munching before the little tiny bowl was empty! Now I ask you, does that sound like someone who has ever had a weight problem?
Debbie Johnson, best-selling author of Think Yourself Thin is also one of the teachers on the inspiring new documentary, The Inner Weigh. http://thinkyourselfthin.com
