Change Your Thoughts To Change Your Results

Words by Christine Zimmerman MPH RDN CDCES

Christine is the TEC team Dietitian/Nutritionist as well as an Intuitive Eating Counselor. She works to encourage athletes and non-athletes alike on their journey of wellness, developing a peaceful and satisfying relationship with food, their bodies, and movement. To schedule your Nutrition Consultation click HERE. 

It’s common for people to want to change their actions and results without first recognizing and dealing with the beliefs, thoughts, and feelings that led to those unwanted actions and results in the first place. Here is a real example from a client.

“When I see really fit people on their bikes, I think about how long it would take me to become that fit.  It seems unachievable because I don’t have the time or the desire to make myself train hard or eat healthy.  I just can’t get started.”

You have the power to change the thoughts that aren’t working for you. Granted it’s not always easy to recognize when a thought is driving unwanted results, especially when you’ve been thinking a particular way for a long time. As you become aware of thoughts that lead to unwanted results, it’s important to avoid judging and criticizing yourself for them. When we criticize ourselves, we’re tapping into the body’s threat-defense mechanism (reptilian brain). The threat-defense system is the quickest and most easily triggered. This is why self-criticism is often our first reaction when things go wrong. The threat-defense system evolved so that when we perceive a threat, we release cortisol and adrenaline, and we get ready to fight, flee or freeze. The system works well for protecting against threats to our physical bodies, but currently, most of the challenges we face are to our self-image and self-concept. Feeling threatened puts stress on the mind and body, and chronic stress may lead to anxiety and depression, which is why habitual self-criticism is so bad for emotional and physical well-being. Inside self-criticism, we are both the attacker and the attacked.

When we practice self-compassion, we are deactivating the threat-defense system and activating the care system. In one study, researchers asked participants to imagine receiving compassion and feeling in their bodies. Every minute they were told things like “Allow yourself to feel that you are the recipient of great compassion; allow yourself to feel the loving-kindness that is there for you.” It was found that the participants given these instructions had lower cortisol levels after the imagery than those in the control group. Yes, sticks and stones break bones but can words potentially heal?  Participants also demonstrated increased heart-rate flexibility afterward. In this case, directing thoughts altered feelings that lead to physical changes in their bodies. When the participants gave themselves compassion, their heart rate came down and they became less defensive.

How do we apply this concept to ourselves?

It’s essential to realize that what we think (even subconsciously) causes us to feel a certain way, which causes us to do certain things, which ultimately leads to specific results.   It is a chain reaction we call TFAR- your Thoughts lead to your Feelings, which lead to your Actions, which lead to your Results, and this reinforces your initial thoughts.

In other words, your thoughts become self-fulfilling prophecies. This is how thoughts become beliefs. Beliefs then become automatic thoughts that drive your behaviors and habits.

If you believe that fitness is important but you are having to make yourself exercise regularly, you probably have negative or limiting thoughts and beliefs that keep you from doing it (Your TEC coach is a safe person to speak to about this). If you don’t like your results, ask yourself what you were thinking first. Remember, it’s a loop, so self-criticism or blaming yourself feeds the cycle too. Thinking thoughts that lead to desirable results is a habit- one that you can change through awareness. 

Acceptance is the starting line for change.