the importance of phrasing

week: +0.5
total: -72

I'm reading Tom Venuto's Feed the Muscle, Burn the Fat. The first chapter is all about motivation and goal-setting. The biggest lesson I took from that is that by changing my language, I can change my attitude, and also influence my outcomes for the better. Instead of phrasing things as "I need to..." or even from the positive "I will...," it actually tricks the mind into believing it if you say, as though from the point of view of the finished future, "I am..." or "I do...." And it doesn't have to be just about weight loss, this works for everything. "I do floss my teeth every night before bed." (I'm still working on 100% compliance on that, but I'm up to 5 nights in a row so far.)

By my motivators over there on the right, I'm still in weight-category limbo -- not firmly "overweight" anymore, but not comfortably in "normal" yet either. I've set a new goal, to be ready for Florida at spring break. Ready or not, I'll have to go.