Visualization for Weight Loss

Visualization has been a thing for years now. Athletes imagine themselves breaking world records. And then they do. Golfers see themselves making the perfect swing and  … Wow! … they get that magical hole in one. Okay, some golfers just visualize themselves hitting a fairway and that, for me, would be an achievement! But can that stuff be used for health & weight loss?

In an effort to motivate myself to walk more, I’d lie on the couch first thing in the morning (often catching up with news that mostly does nothing but stress & depress me!), and then I’d try to visualize myself walking. Our waterfront is a magical place to walk in the morning. A long expanse of sandy beach, with a cobbled walkway at the back for those who don’t want to feel the sand between their toes. Or for when it’s -10°C with a swirl of white fluffy flakes in the air! Catching a sunrise there, summer or winter, is an almost mystical experience. Not a difficult place to walk.

In any case, there I am, lying on the couch … visualizing! I visualize myself walking, and I’m a hundred pounds lighter, with a youthful spring in my step. My sore knee and aching back are miraculously relieved of pain. Perhaps I’ll have my earbuds in. And maybe I’ll even do a few salsa steps along the way. I’m wearing off-the-rack jeans, and not some baggy anti-style statement thing that I have to hunt down on the discount rail in the fat-boy store. And a tight fitting red t-shirt. Why red? Because it’s in the closet, the new tags still attached, a constant reminder of days past! And I’ll be wearing those matching cool red sneakers that I bought five or six years ago. But that I haven’t felt cool enough to wear yet. I’ll be meeting people’s gaze as I trip along, smiling bright and breezy good mornings to all. They can’t help it, they smile back and wish me the same.

Then I come to. And carry on watching the news. Next, I’ll probably grab a coffee and head to the deck for a smoke.

So why has visualization never worked very well for me? I think, perhaps, that I’m doing it incorrectly. Or maybe I’m so good at it that with the mission accomplished in my head, why bother doing it in the real world!

How we handle our dreams can be challenging stuff sometimes.