When our life is lacking or out of balance, many of us reach for unhealthy behaviors to ease or satisfy our hunger for life.

Your mind is like a computer in which many beliefs and hidden expectations have been recorded. Those beliefs and expectations were shaped and guided by our parents, family, teachers, friends, the media, and the Internet, to name a few. So when you’re not in sync with your beliefs, you feel anxiety, doubt, and fear.

In my three decades of experience working with clients worldwide, I’ve discovered that there are two major hurdles to lasting weight loss; the inner image people have of themselves and the inner chatter that keeps feeding those images. This creates a never-ending sabotaging behavior.

It’s fair to say most of you who are reading this have been sabotaging all your efforts to lose weight and regain control of your life. You have been driven by stress, fear, doubts, and anxiety that have kept you in a perpetual fight and flight, freeze, and fawn response, creating, therefore, a negative feedback loop that keeps you overweight, unhealthy, and unhappy.

This fight, freeze, flight, and fawn response is a natural event designed to be triggered occasionally. However, career, family, finance, and many other societal expectations all contribute to perpetuating this event. When this response becomes chronic, it can cause stress-related health problems and can worsen with the typical Western diet.

Fact: Negative thinking can have a strong and sometimes devastating impact on all aspects of our lives.

So what’s going on? Why do you keep doing this to yourself? To make things simple, and answer these important questions, we can use the following analogy: the human being is like a car that has two engines. One pushes forward. It is our positive aspirations, the other pulls back, it is our fears, our prejudices, and false views, our doubts and guilt. It’s not enough that one exercise or eats well, one must commit to a multi-dimensional assessment and take action steps towards applying tangible ways to bring back total health and wellness.

Unfortunately, many people can’t seem to move forward, which often leads to weight gain and other stress-related problems like insomnia, heart disease, cancer, obesity, high blood pressure, and diabetes. Chronic depression is also widespread in our society. Many experience frustration, anger, disappointment, sadness, and isolation that lead to total chaos if they do nothing to return to a healthier way of life.

These conditions and emotions are all cries for a higher quality of life, but instead of giving ourselves what we really need, we find comfort and solace in foolishness and despair. The problem is that this substitution does not work. If you are not getting the life energy, self-love, the happiness you need, you can never get enough to satisfy your hunger for life.

It requires a dramatically different approach from what’s being thrown at you by the mainstream media and from the traditional fitness world.

Meanwhile, if you want to stop sabotaging your efforts and achieve total health and wellness, it’s important to take a different approach than what you see in mainstream media and conventional health and fitness circles.

Here are some practical steps you can take:

· Identify Your Inner Saboteur: Take some time to reflect on your thoughts and actions regarding your health and wellness. Identify any patterns of negative self-talk, limiting beliefs, or fears that are holding you back from achieving your goals.

· Practice Mindfulness: Mindfulness can help you become more aware of your thoughts and emotions. Take a few minutes each day to meditate, practice deep breathing, or simply sit quietly and focus on the present moment.

· Create a Positive Support System: Surround yourself with people who encourage and support your goals. This could be friends, family, or a professional coach or therapist.

· Set Realistic Goals: Instead of setting unrealistic goals that you know you won’t be able to achieve, set smaller, more achievable goals. Celebrate your successes along the way and use them as motivation to keep going.

· Focus on the Journey, Not Just the Destination: Instead of obsessing over a number on the scale or a specific fitness goal, focus on the positive changes you’re making in your life. Celebrate your progress and enjoy the journey towards total health and wellness.

There you have it. I hope that by reading this article, you can finally overcome the saboteur within.

Good luck, and stay strong and healthy!

Nordine and the team at InnerFitness®

If you’re seeking to enhance your overall health, well-being, and happiness, we’d love to help. You can visit us at www.NordinesInnerFitness.com to learn more about our services and programs designed to support your individual needs and goals. We’re committed to empowering individuals to prioritize their inner health and well-being, and we believe everyone deserves access to the tools and resources needed to achieve optimal health. So, if you’re ready to take the first step towards a healthier, happier you, we invite you to explore our website and connect with us today.