Body Revival - How's Your Trinity Triangle?

Excerpted from
Body Revival: Lose Weight, Feel Great and Pump Up Your Faith
By Victoria Johnson

Congratulations. You are on your way to beating the battle of the bulge and permanently releasing the mental and spiritual baggage that has prevented you from reaching your goals in the past. You are taking action-taking charge of your future by investing in yourself.

I believe that nothing happens by accident. I don't believe in chance; I believe in choice. You are making a choice to change your destiny and have the first step toward success. Some people think about getting fit, most people just talk about how they can't get fit, but you took action and picked up this book that's going to help you get fit-from the inside to the outside.

Earlier I mentioned that a true Body Revival involves three components-body, mind and spirit-which, when in harmony, create what I call a trinity triangle. To begin a synergy between the three, you need to take an honest look at where you are right now. To get an idea of how to do that, look at the chart below, which shows a triangle from one of my clients named Lisa.

Lisa was a marathon runner with a strong, lean body. She caused many heads to turn when she walked into a room. When she came to see me because she wanted to "tone up," I was surprised because her overall body was in great shape (even though she lacked some upper-body definition because she focused so much on her running). I began to think that perhaps it wasn't her body that was in need of reviving. I soon learned that her boyfriend, a hard-core weight lifter, had told her that she was "getting flabby" and should add weights to her program. Lisa broke cardinal rule number one when it comes to losing weight: Never do it for someone else.

Over time I learned that even though Lisa was talented and beautiful, she had low self-esteem from an overly critical father when she was growing up, and a boyfriend who was emotionally abusive. He would always "joke" about her being fat, he'd criticize what she ordered in restaurants and would put her down if she gained weight-much like her own father used to do. (He had some food issues of his own that he should have been working on.) While Lisa's body was in peak condition as indicated by the solid line, her spirit was sagging and her mind was negative. Thus, she was filled with insecurities and doubts.

The key to Lisa's success would not be found in leg lifts and squats. The real weight she needed to lose was her 190-pound boyfriend-with his negative attitude. She needed to firm up her faith in herself and create what I call a "new paradigm," a new way of thinking about herself and her life. Because she had such low self-esteem, she saw herself as Mr. Negativity did-weak and flabby. Weak?! I reminded her that she was a marathoner. She said, "I'm not a marathoner; I only ran one race." One race, two races, five races; it doesn't matter: She still ran 26.2 miles in a row-that's more miles than most people run in one month!- and trained extensively to reach that point.

Using her passion for running, we came up with her new paradigm: "I am a marathoner. I am strong in both body and spirit. I fuel my body with positive energy and I will fuel my mind with only positive energy. I can succeed in anything I set my mind to and will surround myself with people who will cheer me on to victory."

One of her action items was to begin spending more time with people who were positive and uplifting. Soon after, she joined a local running club where she met some people who shared her appreciation of the sport-and of her. While Lisa is still working toward feeling confident, she is making progress-and new friends-every day.

To begin to assess where you are, try to picture your body as one side of a triangle. How's your body holding up? Is it strong or sagging? Can it withstand pressure or does it crumble at the first sign of stress?

The next side of the triangle is your mind, which creates your thoughts, beliefs and perceptions. How is your mind lately? Is it focused or frazzled? Positive or pessimistic? The third side of the triangle is your spirit. What condition is your spirit in? Do you feel joyful or judgmental? Giving or begrudging? Do you have enough love and support in your life or do you feel alone?

Now try to picture your triangle. How does it look? Is it totally uniform or are there some gaps? Is it more of a right triangle or is it "all wrong?" Is it scalene or far from lean? It doesn't take a degree in architecture to realize that if all three sides aren't connected, the structure will topple. This is what happens to many of us-we topple. We get tired, get stressed or get sick.

But there are more than three sides to any triangle. Within those three sides there is a "sacred space." What fills that sacred space? If the three sides are not in harmony, it's likely that space will be empty. In order to fill the emptiness, people try different things like shopping, staying in unproductive relationships or situations, and eating or drinking more than they should. Only when the three are in harmony is that space filled with love and joy. So what do you do if your three sides aren't in harmony? Keep reading.