“In today’s social climate, you’re told too often to put others before yourself,” explains Magic, who is also the best-selling author of Stop Being FAT: Love Yourself Skinny.
“It almost seems selfish and shallow to love yourself above all others. So to schedule time for your weight loss seems a ridiculous notion. It’s time to change this outrageous social convention: it’s time to love yourself skinny.”
According to Magic, the first crucial step in unveiling your skinny, sexy body is to map out who you are. “Sit somewhere quiet and peaceful,” Magic advises.
“Reflect on what you want to do with your skinny body, how you will feel, how you will think about yourself and how you want others to think about you and talk about you. When you have this clear direction you can work out what needs to be done to make it happen.”
Once you know who you are, you need to start recording the process. “Journalling is step two to unveiling your skinny, sexy body and achieving your weight loss dreams,” says Magic.
“Now this doesn’t mean that you need to write pages and pages of emotional mush. You should simply record the major things that happen in your day, how you felt about them and what the results of these events were.
“Once you have begun journalling, you can identify patterns in your time, your behaviour and your thought processes. The key to journalling is to be honest with yourself. This is not your high school assignment, this is the start of an adventure – so no cheating!”
Journalling can help you track your weight, nutrition, activity and mindset, she says.
“You can see clearly what happened, when it happened, what else was going on. Most importantly, you can track how you reacted to it all.”
Magic says the ability to shun social conventions and love yourself is driven by four factors.
“Each is as important as the other,” she explains. “With your skinny, sexy body in mind, you will need to use the strategy of Intention, Motivation, Aspiration and Implementation.”
Here’s how…
Intention: “Intention is what you aim to do, be, say, feel, think, act on and experience. Your intention can often redesign the best laid plans you might have. If you are not truly present in what is going on around you, your intentions will change and you may not even notice it. Make your intentions clear, not to everyone else but to YOU.”
Motivation: “Motivation is the reason or reasons you have for acting or behaving in a particular way. Motivation can be extrinsic (influenced by things around you) or intrinsic (internal). To achieve a skinnier, sexier body you need to look at intrinsic motivation. What do you want, feel, see, believe and desire? You are the master of your own destiny. Do you want to actively seek your goals or do you want to limp along hoping that nothing really derails you?”
Aspiration: “Aspiration is an overriding hope or ambition to achieve something. For example, will you love yourself enough to get to your goal weight and stay there? You need to define your true aspiration. What is your WHY?”
Implementation: “Implementation is your decision, your plan and your agreement with yourself. Implement everything you have learnt from your self-reflection and journalling.”
ABOUT MAGIC: Magic Barclay is an emotional eating specialist and the best-selling author of Stop being FAT: Love yourself Skinny and a contributing author in Scott Krywulycz’ The Complete Health Series Vol II. Magic works with people from all walks of life in helping them to lose weight naturally by addressing the root cause of their weight gain. Magic has lost over 76 kilograms to date and supports her clients with understanding that stems from her own experience with weight loss. 
This story was originally published on The Carousel.
