Say or more importantly think anything negative about your appearance? I mean zero. First off, you notice how often you aren’t quite nice to yourself. You notice that with a strong intention you can change those thoughts. For real. You don’t have to take it. And because you aren’t allowed to say anything negative to yourself about the way you look you have to replace those thoughts like a constant gardener of your mindBe the constant gardener of your mind. (1)

You start thinking, “I look great!” Instead of, “I look really tired.” Yes, at first you are faking it. And you may actually feel really tired. But you can decide what you tell yourself about those feelings. The truth is thinking you look great makes you feel the tiniest bit better.

You can look down at your belly and think, “I have got to get rid of this thing. I really need to workout more.” Or, you can look at the same belly and think, “I look good, I swear it’s smaller than yesterday, yes, this is so awesome!” You know what happens? In scenario number two you are a lot, I mean a lot, more motivated to eat better and workout.

This is my thought experiment for week 1 of this 12 week session. I set out to discover if I can intentionally change my thoughts and what, if any, the results of changing my thoughts would have. So far so good. I’m using my accountability group to keep this in front of me because otherwise I might have one good week and then go back to my old ways.

My most definite result so far has been better posture. If you are constantly weeding out the bad thoughts and putting in good ones, especially about the way you look, you will find yourself sitting up straighter and walking taller. And for all 5 feet, 1 inches of me, that is a very good thing!