Self-Hypnosis for Exercise Motivation and Weight Loss

Would you be interested in a simple strategy that will make you more motivated to exercise ? Then read on…

Everyone knows that one of the important keys to a) losing weight and b) remaining at an ideal weight once it is achieved, is exercise. Exercise burns the calories ingested from food and increases the metabolism. Once an ideal weight is achieved, many people give up on exercise and go back to their old habits. They lose motivation. But the fact is: the more you exercise, the more you can eat. If you don’t exercise, it means you cannot eat very much or you will gain weight. Like balancing a bank account, weight loss come down to an input/output formula. If you eat too much without working it off, your account is overdrawn and there are undesirable consequences. So exercise every day!

Of course that is easier said than done. Many people feel that exercise is a dirty word. They are instantly filled with resistance when the word exercise is mentioned. This is often due to accumulated feelings of guilt for not doing what they know they should be doing. These strong negative emotions create a feeling of overwhelm which in turn creates more resistance. Exercise just seems like too big of a task to accomplish, so the thought is ignored and they eat another cookie.

Here is an easy and effective way to break the cycle of overwhelm when it comes to exercise . Starting is the hard part. Once you are moving, you have momentum and it is much easier to stay in motion. So we need to work on getting started.

Here is a strategy that will give powerful leverage in transforming those mountains of resistance into tiny little mole hills, easily conquered! Reduce the task of exercising to a ridiculously small amount so it is much less threatening. Tell yourself that you will exercise for only five minutes. You can do more than five minutes if you want to, but at a minimum tell yourself that exercise consists of just five easy minutes per day. Furthermore, whenever you are in a relaxed state of trance, use some self-hypnosis to increase your exercise motivation . Gently tell yourself, “five minutes is better than zero.” Then let yourself do just five minutes of exercise. If you stop at the five minute mark, that’s fine. Give yourself a pat on the back. You did it! Use the self-hypnosis key phrase every day in a relaxed state.

What usually happens is that once you are engaged in moving, you tend to keep moving. So five minutes turns into six minutes and that turns into seven minutes, etc. The mountains melt into mole hills and those are easily conquered.

So if exercise is a dirty word, try doing just five minutes per day. And you might also start referring to exercise as physical activity or simply as motion.

Here are some easy five minute exercises you can do without leaving your home:

Dance to your favorite music
Do push ups against a wallSkip around the house
Do leg lifts

It is important to make physical activity easy and non-threatening. Once you start exercising every day for five minutes, you will have momentum to increase your time and it will feel as normal as brushing your teeth!