Imagine and Achieve Your Dream Body

Dieters, rejoice! If you're looking to lose weight, you can start by forgetting that you were ever trying to lose weight to begin with.

We've long known that the mind is a powerful tool. Thoughts, feelings, attitudes and beliefs rule our bodies. They determine what we do, how we act, where we go, who our friends are, what we say and what we eat. Our thoughts can motivate us to act or scare us into not acting. And that's just on the surface.

Behind the scenes, our minds can affect us on a cellular level too without us even noticing.

Think about all the people that you know who are happy and successful be it with their bodies, careers or relationships. Now think about how things always seem to go miraculously well for them. They land that dream job. They eat that ice cream sundae and don't gain a pound. They're always madly in love with their significant other.

If you take it a step further, you'll probably see that all of those people have a positive attitude. They believe things will go well for them, and they live their lives accordingly. Doubt, worry and selfpity never enter the equation

Olympic goldmedalistMichael Phelps is a great example. In an interview during the Olympics, he was asked if he always thought he could achieve the feat of winning so many gold medals. And he said that yes, he always believed he could do it, even though he knew the odds weren't necessarily in his favor. He believed. He had a great attitude. And he lived, trained and competed accordingly. And look at the outcome!

Come up with a mantra.

Start by picking a phrase or sentence that says your ideal in a nutshell. I am thin. I'm a thin and fabulous. I weigh (140) pounds. I am strong, fit and have washboard abs. I bench (weight) and run five miles on a regular basis. Say your mantra over and over throughout the day. Don't question it. Just do it. Let it make you proud.

Get up every morning and write your mantra on a small piece of paper. Take the paper and throw it in a special "thin" box in your room. When you suddenly find yourself thinner and healthier, open the box and see how many papers it took. If you prefer your computer, open a file and type your mantra once a day. Or send yourself an email with your mantra as the subject line.

Get musical and put on your favorite song and sing along with your thin mantra as the lyrics. Or just listen to your song and picture yourself in your ideal body doing something you love. Let the tune energize your thought.

See it! Visualize. If you were once thinner, take out a picture, stick it on your fridge, and every time you see it say "you look great." Another visualization trick is to imagine your fat cells in a hot air balloon floating away while you enjoy how your lean body feels.