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unhappy experiences: moments of frustration, high levels of stress, anxiety over a job or a relationship. If your body represents your story so far, the natural way to change your body is to change your story.
    In my experience, when someone is overweight, they say negative things to themselves over and over. Remember, when you change your internal messages, you aren’t just talking to yourself. You are writing new pages in the book of your life. The key is to change the negative messages so that instead of reinforcing bad behaviors, you begin to reinforce good ones.
Action Step:
Reverse the Messages.
    When you feel unfulfilled, you can’t fool yourself into feeling satisfied. But you can reverse the negative messages that make you feel stuck. Unhappiness thrives on inertia—it’s easy to keep feeling the same way today as you felt yesterday. The brain supports inertia unless you give it something new to process.
    So let’s start doing that. Whenever the familiar themes voiced by overweight people come to mind, stop and notice what you’re thinking. Then substitute a counterthought, a positive antidote. In this way, you jump-start the process of rewriting your story and changing your body as you do.
    In the following list, the positive messages are just suggestions. Feel free to invent your own new messages. That’s the best way to really take control of the input your brain is receiving.
    1. Negative:
“I’ve tried everything and read all kinds of diet books, but nothing has worked. I might as well give up.”
    Positive:
“Today’s a new day. Whatever happened in the past doesn’t count. There’s always a solution.”
    2. Negative:
“I must be genetically programmed to be overweight.”
    Positive:
“I can’t change my genes, but I can trigger other genes that regulate normal appetite. Anyway, I know there are people who have lost huge amounts of weight. Their genes didn’t hold them back, and mine won’t either.”
    3. Negative:
“I’m unattractive anyway. My appearance makes me miserable.”
    Positive:
“The ugly duckling was miserable, too, until he amazed everyone by becoming beautiful. I’m going to be like that. I already have beautiful aspects that others appreciate. I’m going to accentuate those qualities with a body to match.”
    4. Negative:
“I’m too old to start all over again.”
    Positive:
“Age doesn’t matter, because when I lose weight, I am going back in time. I’m reversing the aging process to get back to where my body used to be—and wants to be.”
    5. Negative:
“This is my body, and I have to live with it.”
    Positive:
“Every cell in my body is being renewed all the time. I don’t have the same body today that I had a year ago. So if I am always renewing my body, I can renew it to be better.”
    6. Negative:
“I know I should exercise, but I can’t stay motivated.”
    Positive:
“I don’t need to exercise if that’s too hard right now. All I need to do is move, and there are lots of ways I can do that. Some, like dancing or doing simple yoga, are even fun. Once I remember how good it feels to walk and move around, motivation won’t be a problem.”
    7. Negative:
“I know the right foods to eat, but I give in to temptations and cravings.”
    Positive:
“Cravings mean that my body wants to be satisfied. I will give it what it wants by tuning in and listening. I’d like to be fulfilled, and food isn’t the only way to get there. The happier I make myself, the less I will use food as a crutch.”
    8. Negative:
“It’s all just too hard.”
    Positive:
“The hard part was deprivation, discipline, and struggling against hunger. I’m not going to do any of those things anymore. Finding satisfaction is easy, and it’s my new path.”
    Substituting new thoughts is really a kind of brain therapy, using the higher brain’s capacity for belief. Thinking is a complex business, but beliefs gain their power by attaching themselves to emotions. It’s now well known