Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 8, Number 2, 1 February 1991 — See yourself slim [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

See yourself slim

'Ai Pono, E Ola

By Terry Shintani, M.D.

Can the pictures you see in your mind and imagination help your nutrition and weight loss? Last month we discussed social support, an often neglected area of nutrition and weight loss. In this article I

want to share with you another factor in diet and weight loss that is often forgotten. That factor is mental attitude and visualization — that is the pietures you see in your mind. According to Dr. Carl Weisbrod, a noted loeal psychologist and hypnotherapist, pictures we see in our minds help to shape our behaviors and help us to reach our goals. "It's hard to achieve anything that you don't see clearly," he said. On the other hand, if a goal is seen clearly and repeatedly, the subconscious mind will automatically begin directing the body to behave in a way that is consistent with this goal. The trick is to see positive images and not negative images. This is because the subconscious mind doesn't distinguish between right and wrong (that is the job of the conscious mind) and will tend to move you toward the picture you present.

If you keep saying "Don't eat iee cream," for example, you might just set yourself up for craving iee cream because your mind keeps seeing iee cream. If you keep saying "I'm too fat," you may be conjuring up a picture that helps to keep your weight on.

Positive images are important because it is difficult if not impossible to keep specific images out of your mind. This is one of the problems with an approach that only says "Don't do this, don't eat that." For example, try not to imagine fried bacon. Try not to see strips of bacon frying in a pan in your mind. Be honest with yourself and see if you ean do it for one minute. Difficult, isn't it? Now try not to imagine a koa bowl in your mind for one minute. How about trying not to imagine a green taro patch. Very difficult if not impossible not to see the taro patch and koa bowl, wasn't it?

But notice that while you were doing this, you weren't thinking about the fried bacon, were you? Thus, positive images not only give you something to move towards but also replaces negative images that you want to move away from. See yourself slim or at your ideal weight. See it in vivid detail. One way to help to do this is to look at pictures of average Hawaiian people before 1900. Such pictures ean be found at Bishop Museum or

in books such as "Na Leo I Ka Makani" by Palani Vaughan whieh has such photographs. You will realize that the average Hawaiian was naturally strong and slim.

Also try to see yourself eating in a way that supports your positive image. Imagine eating kalo (taro) poi, sweet potato, greens, fruit and fish instead of what you ordinarily eat. See yourself using cooking methods used before Western contact such as baking, steaming, boiling and broiling (there was no frying in ancient Hawai'i, — no frying pans).

Also, see yourself as an active person just as the Hawaiians were in the past. Try to piek enjoyable activities. Even getting out in the sun and having a niee walk on the beach is something that we don't do enough of. If you make use of positive images regularly, seeing yourself as healthy as the Hawaiians used to be, you ean help yourself reach your goals whether they are diet and weight loss or the good health of all the Hawaiian people.

Dr. Shintani, physician and nutritionist, is Director of Preventive Medicine at the Waia'ane Coast Comprehensive Health Center. A majorify of its board and its 18,000 clients are of Native Hawaiian ancestry.