Scott: When it comes to the mind, and you teach all the fantastic ways to reprogram it, what are some of the things that people are doing that are holding them back, in regards to their current mindset?

Jim: Well, that is a great question. I am going to kind of break it down, because, people do not realize that they are literally sabotaging their own success, with the way most people think about weight loss. Usually, when you ask a person how they’re going to lose weight, the answer is always they are going to go on a diet.

The problem with a diet is that the presupposition of a diet on a deeper level is that a) it is only temporary, and b) it is going to mean deprivation. Those two things do not create lasting results, obviously.

I spend a lot of time talking about the conscious and unconscious mind; so let me give you a little bit of foundational information on that.

Scott: That would be great.

Jim: We all have a conscious and unconscious mind. Your conscious mind is logical; it understands what you should do. Everyone knows what they should do to lose weight. I mean there’s not a person out there that doesn’t know that. Basically, eat better and exercise more.

Scott: Right.

Jim: The other part is the unconscious mind. And this is the part of our mind that truly runs the show. So we like to think that we’re consciously in charge of everything, but we’re not. There’s too much stuff going on in our lives to consciously think about every little thing.

The example I use a lot to describe this kind of difference in our minds is when we drive. When you first learned to drive, you understood how to do it. You saw your parents doing it most of your life, and it seemed pretty simple. Then you went and got behind the wheel. And you began gunning it, braking too hard, you couldn’t keep it straight. But as you continued driving, it just became completely automatic.So that when you get in the car now, you don’t even think about driving.

And if you look at all the things that are like this, all our lives become pretty routine. We don’t have to think about it, it just kind of happens. And that’s the unconscious part of our mind.

Scott: Sort of like what happens to me a lot, where I follow the same path to work all the time. And if I’m going down the same road with a different destination and my mind is somewhere else, I catch myself continuing along that path when I really should have turned a couple of miles back.

Jim: Sure, sure. That’s a common phenomenon. They call it “highway hypnosis, ” and everyone’s experienced where you’re driving and you kind of go past the exit. You’re just lost in thought. So, when you’re lost in thought, who’s driving the car? It’s your unconscious mind.

And if you look at reading and writing, at one point that was extremely difficult to do, but now it’s completely automatic. It’s so automatic that if I held a word up in front of you on a piece of paper you couldn’t even not understand it.

That’s how quick your unconscious mind is. So that’s what runs most of our lives. Now, we can obviously make decisions. Our conscious mind matters. But most of our behaviors are automatic. They’re kind of programmed into our unconscious mind so that we don’t have to think about them.

When you get up in the morning, you go through the same routine. It just becomes a process. You don’t have to be thinking about it. But the problem is that our eating behaviors, our exercise behaviors, those are in the unconscious mind as well.

The important part is this. The conscious mind is logical. We all know what to do, right? I mean if we could run everything consciously, no one would smoke. Everyone knows it’s bad. But the unconscious mind is in control, and the unconscious mind is not logical. It works by association.

The classic example is, you’ve heard of Pavlov’s dogs, right? He was a Russian scientist, he was studying dogs, and he came up with this experiment where he put the food in front of the dog and they would salivate. And every time he did this, he would have someone ring a bell. Put the food in front of them, salivate, and ring a bell, over and over and over again. Eventually, all they needed to do was ring the bell and the dogs would salivate. Because in the dog’s mind, the sound of the bell and the food had become one, and now elicited the same response.

So, that’s called associative conditioning, and that’s how our unconscious mind begins to work.We can’t approach it in the same way that we do consciously.

That’s why when people do dieting, they know what’s good, they know what they should do and all the rest of it, but they never go to the unconscious level where they begin changing up their association for what these things mean. They’ll say, “I know I need to eat healthy food, ‘ but on a deeper level, they think healthy food is boring, gross, not fun.

So, they’re constantly fighting against these associations that they have. That’s how most people start. They rely completely on willpower to do this.”

Willpower is not the most effective way. I say if your willpower is so strong, do you want to take your breathing and let your conscious mind be in control of that? Or your heartbeat, do you want to consciously control that?” So, the most powerful part of your mind is your unconscious mind, and you need to learn a few basic techniques on how to influence it and how to program it so that you have the connections and the associations that you want.

So, that’s kind of the beginning on the conscious and unconscious mind.The next two things I want to point out, and this is kind of the foundation that we will keep referring to, is that the unconscious mind, first of all, does not understand negatives. Now this is very important.

What I mean by this is, most people, when they start dieting, are totally focused on everything that they can’t have.Now if I tell you… Use all the will power you guys have got. Get all your will power in your body, because I want you to not think about what I’m about to say. And everyone who is listening to this: get ready. Don’t think about what I’m about to say. Don’t think of a yellow banana. Don’t think of a yellow banana. Yellow banana.

Scott: [laughs]

Jim: All right, what happens? [laughs]

Scott: Total banana in my head right now.

Jim: It’s impossible not to, because your unconscious mind needs to think about it first in order to understand what I’m even saying. So it’s very difficult not to think about what I’m saying. There’s very little difference between your experience when I say: “Think of a yellow banana. Don’t think of a yellow banana.” “Think of sundae. Don’t think of a sundae.” “Think of a cookie. Don’t think of a cookie.” “Don’t think of a cookie.” [laughs]

But this is what people do themselves on diets constantly. They keep telling themselves what they can’t eat, and then they are unintentionally focusing on exactly what it is that they want to reduce in their lives.

Scott: Right.

Jim: That’s one problem. And the other thing is this, and this is very important. The unconscious mind cannot tell the difference between vivid imagination and reality. The unconscious mind will respond to vivid imagination.This is why horror movies exist, because you can go watch a horror movie, you’re in a theater with a hundred other people and you’re safe, but you’re sitting there and you’re all tense, you’re nervous, you’re not breathing, because you’re living through the movie. You’re vicariously living in that movie, pretending you’re the character or in that situation, and you start to actually have the physical response like you would have if you were in that situation.

Scott: Right.

Jim: So when you add these two things together, what people on diets are doing is… I mean, think about it right now. Think about your favorite dessert. Think about it in really vivid colors. Think about the most enjoyable time you ever had it, and you might find your mouth start to salivate.

Scott: That’s right.

Jim: Now this is what people are doing to themselves 24 hours a day when they go on a diet. And they’re actually increasing this. They’re increasing, physiologically, their desire for these foods [laughing] that they want to avoid. So you can see how it’s almost like self-torture.

Scott: Totally!

Jim: And this is why a lot of times people find it very difficult to stay on a diet, because they’re concentrating exactly on what they don’t want.

This interview was an excerpt from the MP3 audio interview program, Unstoppable Fat Loss . To learn how to get the complete interview and many more, click here

Jim:    What are some of the biggest mistakes people make when it comes to exercising?

Shawn:    I think the biggest mistake people make in their fitness conditioning and certainly strength training is that they check their mind at the door. They put their work clothes in the locker. They leave their brain there and their mind. They walk into the gym and they go through motions. Going through the motions because it’s an obligatory . . . I’m obligated. I’m supposed to work out. But they don’t vest themselves; integrate themselves and become fully present to it.

When you are there; when your mind is driving your muscles; not coming along like a dog on a leash; you have a more effective workout. Your results are better.

Jim:    That’s a big difference. I can relate to that because I lot of the changes I made in my body happened through yoga and it happened naturally. It was the first time I’d ever learned to exercise that way, I’d never learned how to go inside and begin to really connect with my body until I began doing yoga and martial arts. I’d never heard of that.

So what I like about what you’re doing I think is so valuable for everyone listening here is to begin thinking about working out and exercising in a whole new way.

Shawn:    I’m going to ask you; you did those things because they were good for you, but did you also enjoy them?

Jim:    I’ll tell you what; well martial arts was good for a little while and then I hit a point where I was “What am I doing this for?” So that kind of fell away. Yoga was something . . . because I wanted to change my body and I started going to the gym. I’d go to the gym and go to the gym and it just wasn’t right for me partly because I was doing it wrong at the time and I didn’t realize it. Like you were saying, it was like I was checking my mind at the door and just going through the movements.
I wasn’t getting the results that I wanted and just like you said, as I moved into yoga, all of a sudden that was the first time I’d ever really done exercising that I enjoyed. I literally got addicted to it. It had nothing to do with willpower, I had to do it.

Shawn:    You’re talking mastery right there Jim. I love that conversation. You talked a little about the motivation, but that’s it. You are identifying the actual steps to mastery which is moving from “I have to do this thing” into something I enjoy doing and into where it’s a part of my life.

I understand that people can only willpower themselves for so long. If it’s not something you enjoy; if it doesn’t add time, energy and vitality to your life; if it’s not an asset and it’s just something I’m doing because I need to like balancing my checkbook, it will fall away or you’ll wait for your doctor to force you to.

I want to point out that your discussion about the yoga led right into what I wanted to point at which is that the whole aspect of “I enjoy it” . . . we enjoy anything that we are very present to.

Jim:    That’s great and again sometimes people just say “Okay, this is what I’m going to do” where they’d almost be better off if they took a step back and said “What’s a plan that I could do forever as opposed to the plan to get the instant results in a month that’s not sustainable?” It’s a whole different approach to it.

Shawn:    Creating a reason and it’s that “What am I moving towards and what am I becoming.” When you talk about motivation, I say fitness is something you do. Strength is a way of being. When you become . . . when you stop doing fitness and start being fit; start being strong; that is your life and no longer something you just go through the motions on.

Often, it stems from the mistaken belief that they need to be “hard” on themselves, but there is a huge difference between being hard on yourself and being supportive and helpful.

One of the techniques I often suggest to instantly illustrate the difference is to imagine saying the things you often say to yourself (in the tone you say them in) to a person in your life that you love.

For example, imagine saying to that person “you’re so lazy and stupid, you’ll never lose weight”. (harsh I know, but I want to point out the things that people are often saying to themselves constantly). Do you think that would motivate them or just make them feel bad?

Now, imagine you wanted to help and support this friend. What would you say to them? Notice how your words and tone are different, probably more supportive. What would happen if you began talking to yourself this way?

Remember you don’t need to be harsh with yourself to get great results, you need to be effective and helpful.

Jim:    So seeing how hormone’s influence muscle growth and weight loss, what are some natural ways to stimulate those hormones?

Vince:    That’s a great question.  Let’s look at three things – training, lifestyle and nutrition.  Let’s start off with things people might miss on lifestyle.  The reality is that when training, you’re only in the gym a couple of hours a week.  The majority of the time you’re outside of the gym.  So sleeping eight hours a night is very important.  These are the things that can’t really get dressed up as sexy and they can’t market on the cover of a magazine, “Sleep Eight Hours a Night.”

People underestimate this stuff.  Going to bed earlier I found was one of the big things for me in recovery and being able to train harder the next day.  I would let that kick in.  So I recommend that everybody – I’m just painting a perfect situation.  Whether you can do this or you can’t, that’s up to the person listening to the call to make that commitment and lifestyle change.

If you can get to bed closer to 10:30/11:00 each night, that’s going to help a lot.  They say for every hour of sleep you can get before midnight, it’s almost like the equivalent of two hours sleep.  I tested this out.  I know it’s amazing.  You wake up earlier and you’re able to start your first meal earlier.  You’re able to finish your last meal earlier.  Everything just seems to work a lot better.  Your body is able to start building muscle quicker.

That’s going to produce growth hormone.  That’s one of the hormones that are going to allow you to build muscle and aid in weight loss.

Also minimizing stress in your life.  Looking at the relationships you’re in; the career you’re in; the social settings you’re in; how late are you staying up – all those little things – the one isolated incident might not make a big difference.  It’s what happens when going to bed at 2:00/3:00 in the morning occurs two or three nights a week over a course of six to nine months.

That’s where the damage is.  So that’s lifestyle.  Alcohol too – that’s another thing.  A lot of people ask me, “Vince, can I drink on the weekends?”  Of course you can drink, but is it going to get you closer to your goal or further from your goal?  It all comes down to how serious you are about the weight loss.

If I’m getting ready for a show, the booze has got to go.  If I’m just wishy washy; I’m happy with how I look and I’m just trying to relieve some stress and that, well then sure.  A drink here and there isn’t going to be a big deal.  So you have to ask yourself how serious you are and then you’ll be able to start answering these questions better for yourself.  That’s lifestyle.

Jim:    That’s really interesting.  I like again just kind of expanding on what people already know.  Everyone knows if you sleep better it’s good for you.  It sounds like there’s a scientific reason that it literally affects the hormones in your body when you sleep more.  That’s pretty important.

My friend Rob Poulos, creator of Fat Burning Furnace just gave away over $2300 to the winners of his New Body Challenge.

you can see them here:
==> New Body Challenge Winners

The cool thing is that he didn’t just post the pictures of the winners, he also had them explain their motivation in the beginning and what it felt like to successfully create this transformation.

As you read their stories, notice how they describe having these new bodies.

- “My confidence has skyrocketed!”
- “I can fit into my skinny clothes!”
- “I feel like a new person!”

The most common motivation mistake people make is focusing too much on weight and the external measurements and not enough on how these changes can transform your entire quality of life.

I realized that my changes were made possible by one belief; that if I wasn’t getting the results I wanted, it was because I was wrong.

Now that may not sound like a big deal to you, but it was HUGE for me. Why? because I was very defensive. I was so busy defending myself that I missed noticing the results I was getting, which were crappy.

But, when I began to accept that there were better ways to do things, everything changed. I began to realize that the accepted conventional wisdom was often dead wrong. I began measuring the value of methods not by popularity, but by effectiveness.

The reason I’m writing about this is because if you’re not happy with your results, instead of beating yourself up, take some time and educate yourself about new ways to get what you want.

Don’t get caught in the trap where you say “I know what to do, I just need to do it.” because there is a good chance that the real problem is that you don’t know what to do.

I get asked about loose skin sometimes, and I thought I’d post this article by my friend Tom Venuto to help answer any questions.

By Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
www.burnthefat.com

If you’re extremely overweight or if you’ve been extremely overweight in the past, then you know that getting rid of excess weight is only one of the challenges you face. Once the fat is gone, you are often confronted with an equally frustrating cosmetic problem; Loose skin.

I receive a lot of e-mail from people with loose skin or from overweight people who are concerned about having loose skin after they lose the weight. Just recently, I received this email from a reader of my syndicated “Ask Tom” fat loss column:

“Tom, I began a fat loss program using your Burn The Fat program and it worked so well I got down to 15 1/2 stones (from 19). However, this has caused me a problem: Excess abdominal skin. I didn’t crash lose this weight, it came off at the rate of about 2 lbs. per week just like you recommended. Now I’m unsure of whether to carry on, as my abdomen has quite a lot of excess skin - I feel like I’ve turned into a bloody Shar-Pei! (You know, as in the dog!)

Does everyone go through this? Will the skin tighten up? I was overweight for more than 12 years. Am I going to end up needing surgical skin removal? Can you offer me any advice? I’m a medical student in the UK and my colleagues seem determined to proffer surgery as the only option.”

My answer included 12 things you should know about loose skin after very large weight losses:

1. Skin is incredibly elastic. Just look at what women go through during pregnancy. Skin has the ability to expand and contract to a remarkable degree.

2. Elasticity of skin tends to decrease with age. Wrinkling and loss of elasticity is partly the consequence of aging (genetic factors) and also a result of environmental factors such as oxidative stress, excessive sun exposure, and nutritional deficiency. The environmental parts you can fix, the genetics and age part, you cannot. Advice: Get moving and change the things you have control over… Be realistic and don’t worry about those things you don’t have control over.

3. How much your skin will return to its former tautness depends partly on age. The older you get, the more an extremely large weight loss can leave loose skin that will not return to normal.

4. How long you carry extra weight has a lot to do with how much the skin will become taut after the weight loss: For example, compare a 9 month pregnancy with 9 years carrying 100 excess pounds.

5. How much weight was carried has a lot to do with how much the skin will resume a tight appearance. Your skin can only be stretched so much and be expected to “snap back” one hundred percent.

6. How fast the weight was gained also has a lot to do with how much the skin will resume a tight appearance. Your skin can only be stretched so quickly and be expected to “snap back.”

7. How fast weight is lost also has a lot to do with how much the skin will tighten up. Rapid weight loss doesn’t allow the skin time to slowly resume to normal. (yet another reason to lose fat slowly; 1-2 pounds per week, 3 pounds at the most if you have a lot of weight to lose, and even then, only if you are measuring body fat and you’re certain it’s fat you’re losing, not lean tissue).

8. There are exceptions to all of the above; i.e, people who gained and then lost incredible amounts of weight quickly at age 50 or 60, and their skin returned 100% to normal.

9. There are many creams advertised as having the ability to restore the tightness of your skin. None are likely to work – at least not permanently and measurably – and especially if you have a lot of loose skin. Don’t waste your money.

10. If you’re considering surgical skin removal, consult a physician for advice because this is not a minor operation, but keep in mind that your plastic surgeon may be making his BMW payments with your abdominoplasty money. (Surgery may be recommended in situations where it’s not 100% necessary). Surgery should be left as the ABSOLUTE FINAL option in extreme cases.

11. Give your skin time. Your skin will get tighter as your body fat gets lower. I’ve seen and heard of many cases where the skin gradually tightened up, at least partially, after a one or two year period where the weight loss was maintained and exercise continued.

12. Know your body fat percentage before even THINKING about surgery. Loose skin is one thing, but still having body fat is another. Be honest with yourself and do that by taking your body fat measurement. This can be done with skinfold calipers or a variety of other devices (calipers might not be the best method if you have large folds of loose skin. Look into impedance analysis, underwater weighing, DEXA or Bod Pod).

Suppose for example, a man drops from 35% body fat all the way down to 20%. He should be congratulated, but I would tell him, “Don’t complian about loose skin, your body fat is still high. Press onward and keep getting leaner.”

Average body fat for men is in the mid teens (16% or so) Good body fat for men is 10-12%, and single digits is extremely lean (men shouldn’t expect to look “ripped” with 100% tight skin on the abs unless they have single digit body fat, and women low teens).

Except in extreme cases, you are unlikely to see someone with loose skin who has very low body fat. It’s quite remarkable how much your skin can tighten up and literally start to “cling” to your abdominal muscles once your body fat goes from “average” to “excellent.” Someone with legitimate single digit body fat and a ton of loose skin is a rare sight.

So… the key to getting tighter skin is to lose more body fat, (and build more muscle), up to the point where your body composition rating is BETTER than average (in the “good” to “great” category, not just “okay”). Only AFTER you reach your long term body fat percentage goal should you give thought to “excess skin removal.” At that point, admittedly, there are bound to be a few isolated cases where surgery is necessary if you can’t live with the amount of loose skin remaining.

However, unless you are really, really lean, it’s difficult to get a clear picture of what is loose skin, what is just remaining body fat and how much further the skin will tighten up when the rest of the fat is lost.

Need help getting rid of that last bit of body body fat? Click here to find out how to do it the natural way: www.burnthefat.com www.burnthefat.com

Scott:  When it comes to the mind, and you teach all the fantastic ways to reprogram it, what are some of the things that people are doing that are holding them back, in regards to their current mindset?

Jim:  Well, that is a great question. I am going to  break it down, because, people do not realize that they are literally sabotaging their own success, with the way most people think about weight loss. When I have ever worked with anyone and when I first ask how they are going to lose weight, the answer is always they are going to go on a diet.

The problem with a diet is that the presupposition of a diet on a deeper level is that a) it is only temporary, and b) it is going to mean deprivation. Those two things do not create lasting results, obviously.

Scott:  Right.

Jim:  So, right from the very start, it’s important to set it up in a different way. Now, let me mention two other things about your mind. This is important.

I spend a lot of time talking about the conscious and unconscious mind; so let me give you a little bit of foundational information on that.

Scott:  That would be great.

Jim:  So that we’re kind of speaking the same language here. We all have a conscious and unconscious mind. Now, conscious is what’s aware right now. It’s logical; it understands what you should do. Everyone knows what they should do to lose weight. I mean there’s not a person out there that doesn’t know that. Basically, eat better and exercise more.

Scott:  Right.

Jim:  That’s easy, right? The other part is the unconscious mind. And this is the part of our mind that truly runs the show. So we like to think that we’re consciously in charge of everything, but we’re not. There’s too much stuff going on in our lives to consciously think about every little thing.

The example I use a lot to describe this kind of difference in our minds is when we drive. When you first learned to drive, you kind of understood it. You saw your parents doing it most of your life, and it seemed pretty simple. Then you went and got behind the wheel. Then you’re kind of gunning it a little bit, jerking around. You couldn’t keep it straight.

But as you continued practicing it, eventually it just became completely automatic. So that when you get in the car now, you don’t even think about driving. You’re thinking about where you’re going; you’re thinking about a conversation you had last week. But it’s just pretty much on autopilot.

And if you look at all the things that are like this, all our lives become pretty routine. We don’t have to think about it, it just kind of happens. And that’s the unconscious part of our mind.

Scott:  Sort of like what happens to me a lot, where I follow the same path to work all the time. And if I’m going down the same road with a different destination and my mind is somewhere else, I catch myself continuing along that path when I really should have turned a couple of miles back.

Jim:  Sure, sure. That’s a common phenomenon. They call it “highway hypnosis, ” and everyone’s experienced where you’re driving and you kind of go past the exit. You’re just lost in thought. So, when you’re lost in thought, who’s driving the car? It’s your unconscious mind.

And if you look at reading and writing, at one point that was extremely difficult to do, but now it’s completely automatic. It’s so automatic that if I held a word up in front of you on a piece of paper you couldn’t even not understand it.

That’s how quick your unconscious mind is. So that’s what runs most of our lives. Now, we can obviously make decisions. Our conscious mind matters. But most of our behaviors are automatic. They’re kind of programmed into our unconscious mind so that we don’t have to think about them.

When you get up in the morning, you go through the same routine. It just becomes a process. You don’t have to be thinking about it. But the problem is that our eating behaviors, our exercise behaviors, those are in the unconscious mind as well.

The important part is this. The conscious mind is logical. It understands things. We all know what to do, right? I mean if we could run everything consciously, no one would smoke. Everyone knows it’s bad. But the unconscious mind is in control, and the unconscious mind is not logical. It works by association.

The classic example is, you’ve heard of Pavlov’s dogs, right? He was a Russian scientist, he was studying dogs, and he came up with this experiment where he put the food in front of the dog and they would salivate. And every time he did this, he would have someone ring a bell. Put the food in front of them, salivate, and ring a bell, over and over and over again.

Eventually, all they needed to do was ring the bell and the dogs would salivate. Because in the dog’s mind, the sound of the bell and the food had become one, and now elicited the same response. So, that’s called associative conditioning, and that’s how our unconscious mind begins to work.

We can’t approach it in the same way that we do consciously. That’s why when people do dieting, they know what’s good, they know what they should do and all the rest of it, but they never go to the unconscious level where they begin changing up their association for what these things mean.

They’ll say, “I know I need to eat healthy food, ‘ but on a deeper level, they think healthy food is boring, gross, not fun. So, they’re constantly fighting against these associations that they have. That’s how most people start. They rely completely on willpower to do this.

”Willpower is not the most effective way. I say if your willpower is so strong, do you want to take your breathing and let your conscious mind be in control of that? Or your heartbeat, do you want to consciously control that?”

So, the most powerful part of your mind is your unconscious mind, and you need to learn a few basic techniques on how to influence it and how to program it so that you have the connections and the associations that you want. So, that’s kind of the beginning on the conscious and unconscious mind.

The next two things I want to point out, and this is kind of the foundation that we will keep referring to, is that the unconscious mind, first of all, does not understand negatives. Now this is very important. What I mean by this is, most people, when they start dieting, are totally focused on everything that they can’t have.

Now if I tell you… Use all the will power you guys have got. Get all your will power in your body, because I want you to not think about what I’m about to say. And everyone who is listening to this: get ready. Don’t think about what I’m about to say. Don’t think of a yellow banana. Don’t think of a yellow banana. Yellow banana.

Scott:  [laughs]

Jim:  All right, what happens? [laughs]

Scott:  Total banana in my head right now.

Jim:  Great! And it’s impossible not to, because your unconscious mind needs to think about it first in order to understand what I’m even saying. So it’s very difficult not to think about what I’m saying. There’s very little difference between your experience when I say: “Think of a yellow banana. Don’t think of a yellow banana.” “Think of sundae. Don’t think of a sundae.” “Think of a cookie. Don’t think of a cookie.” “Don’t think of a cookie.” [laughs]

Scott:  [laughs]

Jim:  But this is what people do themselves on diets constantly. They keep telling themselves what they can’t eat, and then they are unintentionally focusing on exactly what it is that they want to reduce in their lives.

Scott:  Right.

Jim:  That’s one problem. And the other thing is this, and this is very important. The unconscious mind cannot tell the difference between vivid imagination and reality. The unconscious mind will respond to vivid imagination.

This is why horror movies exist, because you can go watch a horror movie, you’re in a theater with a hundred other people and you’re safe, but you’re sitting there and you’re all tense, you’re nervous, you’re not breathing, because you’re living through the movie. You’re vicariously living in that movie, pretending you’re the character or in that situation, and you start to actually have the physical response like you would have if you were in that situation.

Scott:  Right.

Jim:  So when you add these two things together, what people on diets are doing is… I mean, think about it right now. Think about your favorite dessert. Think about it in really vivid colors. Think about the most enjoyable time you ever had it, and you might find your mouth start to salivate.

Scott:  That’s right.

Jim:  Now this is what people are doing to themselves 24 hours a day when they go on a diet. And they’re actually increasing this. They’re increasing, physiologically, their desire for these foods [laughing] that they want to avoid. So you can see how it’s almost like self torture.

Scott:  Totally!

Jim:  And this is why a lot of times people find it very difficult to stay on a diet, because they’re concentrating exactly on what they don’t want.

About Scott and Unstoppable Fat Loss:
Scott Tousignant is a personal trainer and motivation coach from Ontario, Canada. After graduating from the University of Windsor’s Human Kinetics Program with honors in movement science, Scott began his career with an intense interest in physiology and biomechanics, but quickly developed a love for sport psychology. His interest in the power of the mind led him to create Unstoppable Fat loss, (UFL) an audio Mp3 interview series. UFL is different because it’s not about what to eat or how to train. It’s about goals, mind, motivation, vision, persistence, emotions, passion, overcoming obstacles and even how fitness and health fit into your life purpose. The interviews include fitness professionals and “regular folks” who have overcome some very big problems. You can visit Scott’s website at: Unstoppable Fat Loss

Definition

The eDiets.com website provides information on several diet programs, fitness regimens, as well as support from health professionals. The term e-diets may be used to describe any diet program found on the internet.