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I lied, cheated and deceived to get what I wanted

And why I’d recommend it to everyone!

By Helen Anne GregoryPublished 3 years ago 2 min read
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If anyone asks me how I managed to get to where I am right now, my answer would be this…

I lied, cheated and deceived myself until I got here, and it’s the best thing I’ve ever done.

But those things are all bad things aren’t they?

Not when used to help you get something good for yourself.

I was living an unhealthy lifestyle. I was doing zero exercise because I found it so uncomfortable. I was comfort eating all the wrong things and I thought it was just impossible to change, I wasn’t even sure the changes I wanted were possible.

In this case I used a few simple things I’d learnt about the human brain to help get me to my goal of better mental and physical health and fitness.

Our brains don’t like change or the unfamiliar.

Our brains will try to protect us from things we think are hard/stressful.

Our brains don’t know the difference between a thought and reality.

When I looked at the brain and realised my body didn’t want to exercise because I was stressed even thinking about it. I was so unfit and it was so uncomfortable so my brain would tell me it was ok to start doing it when I felt a bit stronger or when I’d lost some weight.

I realised my diet was mainly down to the bad habits of eating too much and not enough of the right things. It was all too familiar for me to order a takeaway, or make a huge bowl of pasta. It’s what I’d done for the last 5 years.

My brain was doing what it should. It was conserving energy by repeating my familiar habitual comfortable patterns. It was trying to keep me safe from the discomfort and stress of exercise.

So I had to get my brain on my side!

And so I started lying to my brain! Yes it’s possible.

The first day of my new diet routine I nearly cried. Salad for lunch. Yuck! I hated salad (or so my brain believed!). When I realised it didn’t taste so bad after all I started telling my brain each day before lunch! “I’m hungry and really looking forward to my salad”, “Salad is great, I can eat loads of it and it is what my body needs”. It didn’t take long for me to start believing these things! My brain took the bait.

If it worked for my food, how about my exercise.

I started telling myself “I’m really looking forward to going to the gym after work.” Or when I started to want to make excuses I’d remind myself how amazing I would feel afterwards. I stopped allowing myself to think how uncomfortable or hard working out felt and just focused my mind on the benefits. Naturally it did still feel hard work at the time but the more I thought about how much I was enjoying it the more I actually started to believe it.

What are you wanting to achieve but are struggling with?

How is your brain trying to avoid the the unfamiliar?

How is your brain trying to protect you from perceived stress/discomfort?

What can you decide to start telling your brain to get it to believe you really want to do this thing and that it’s not scary or unfamiliar?

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About the Creator

Helen Anne Gregory

Former Self Saboteur & Emotional Tightrope Walker turned Mental Health Blogger / Professional Mezzo Soprano and Life Coach

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