Did you know that you can get fitter just by sitting on your couch?!
Let me tell you why it’s possible to lose weight just by changing your thinking...
First, the evidence. Let’s have a look at two research studies.
Harvard Maids Study (2007)
Alia J. Crum and Ellen J. Langer set out to investigate the effect of our mindset on our bodies. They selected 84 female housekeepers from seven similar hotels. In 4 of the hotels, the women were told that their regular work of cleaning an average of 15 rooms a day (pushing vacuum cleaners, scrubbing toilets and tubs, pulling sheets) was enough exercise to meet the requirements for a healthy, active lifestyle. In the other three hotels, the women were told nothing – they were the control group.
After four weeks, the researchers measured changes in the women’s health across both groups. Although, both groups continued to do the same physical work, what they found was that the group that was told that their job was more physically demanding had each lost an average of 1kg, lowered their blood pressure by almost 10% and had significantly healthier body-fat percentages, body mass indexes and waist-to-hip ratios!
A great result for those housekeepers, without having made any changes at all to their daily lives!!
Alan Richardson’s Basketball Study (1967)
In this study, Richardson observed college basketball players and assessed the accuracy of their free throws. He then divided them into 3 groups randomly and assigned them specific practice schedules for the next month.
Group A were instructed to spend 20 mins every day practicing their free throws on the court. Group B were told not to practice at all.
And Group C were told to mentally practice their free throws for 20 mins every day. In other words, they had to use visualize themselves scoring the perfect free throw in their minds only – no physical practice.
After 30 days, Richardson assessed the free throw accuracy of each group. Unsurprisingly, Group A had improved their accuracy by 24% and Group B had no improvement at all. But, the surprising result was Group C, who had improved their accuracy by 22%! Almost as good as the group that had been physically practising, but they hadn’t even lifted a muscle!
So, what do we take from these findings?
Well, no. 1, you can get fitter just by sitting on your couch imagining yourself exercising!
But more than that, it’s about the power of our thinking, our mindsets, our beliefs. If we can master those, we can see amazingly successful results.
You see, most times, when we’re trying to improve our performance in any area of our lives… I’m not just talking about losing weight here. I’m talking about how we manage our money, how we engage in our relationships, how we try to break bad habits or develop good ones like becoming tidier, more responsible, more confident in public speaking…you name it!
…when we’re trying to make positive changes in our own personal development, we tend to think about all the things we have to DO in order to achieve results. But, we never focus on our mindsets, or our thoughts. And yet, clearly, doing the mental practice is the one factor that can lead to the most effective and real change!
If you’re desperately looking for change in your life, and tired of the “On Monday I’ll start again” rollercoaster of stops and starts over the years, then you NEED to enroll in our Neuroscience of Getting Unstuck course. It will change your life in less than 6 hours!
We’ll dig in to why understanding your brain is so key to achieving the results you want to see, and how it’s actually possible to use it to help you think yourself thinner, healthier, richer, funnier…you name it! You can check out how Cobus uses all the Getting Unstuck Neuroscience principles in action in his Backward Bicycle Challenge here.
Ok, I’m inspired…I’m off to go sit on my couch 😉
See ya,
Tammy “Couch Potato” Oosthuizen
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