Life Fitness is a process of continuous growth: physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. Need motivation and guidance to facilitate positive changes in your life? Ask Life Fit Expert Laura Lewis!

Dear Laura:

What is your opinion about affirmations? Do you think they work if you are trying to lose weight? I've tried them before and no luck.

Signed,

Curious in Webster, NY

Dear Curious,

By affirmations, I assume you are referring to where one speaks out loud a phrase related to specific goal. Yes, I believe they can work. But your mind and your heart need to be in the right places. Or you might as well be reading The Gettysburg Address out loud every day.

Louise Hay is considered the "grande dame" of affirmations. There is a new movie out based upon her first book called You Can Heal Your Life. I highly recommend checking it out. Louise was a person who had many challenges in her young life, so ultimately she naturally gravitated towards helping other people solve problems in their own lives. In the process, she ended up developing phrases or affirmations specific to what each person wanted to achieve. For example, if they needed to boost their self-esteem, she would have them say something like, "I feel powerful, happy and loved." Louise would instruct her clients to write them down and say the phrase or phrases on a daily basis in order to change their negative self-talk -- to drown it out in a sense and ultimately, to change their internal programming. She had numerous people lose weight by changing their thoughts and ultimately their feelings about their belief systems regarding their own weight issues.

Five Rules To Follow:

• Identify a specific goal. For example, if you desire to lose 10 pounds, then create an affirmation around it.
• Make the affirmation as if the condition were already true. "I weigh ________(fill in the blank) and I feel fit, light and joyous."
• Write out your affirmation on pieces of paper and then place them strategically in various places so you can see them and read out loud. Tape the affirmation on the mirror where you brush your teeth every morning. Look yourself in the eye and say it several times. Place the affirmation in your car on your dash. Say it while sitting in traffic. You get the picture.
• Charge it up with a positive feeling or memory. For example, do you remember a time where you felt like you were on top of the world? Do you see yourself smiling, happy, satisfied, energized? Close your eyes, go there, "grab" that feeling in a sense, then say your affirmation. Infuse your affirmation with positive feelings.
• Of course, with your newfound passion, you should naturally gravitate towards eating better and improving your fitness by working out more. Be strategic about your goal. The shift in your internal programming should make losing weight easier for you.

"Curious," I have seen this strategy work time and time again with the many folks I have worked with over the years individually and in groups. It does work! But as a friend of mine said to me once: "You've got to get your mind right." And I believe that. Once you do that, which is where positive affirmations come into play, everything else should fall into place.

Healthfully Yours,

Laura Lewis, Life Fit Expert, www.Thatsfit.com