Good brain, evil brain. How self talk can affect your diet and exercise goals

Many of us know about the old right brain/left brain theory of different parts of your brain being responsible for learning patterns. Right brain is said to be creative and left brain organised. Maybe this theory is old hat now; in Australia we take awhile to accept theories from the big, bad world, but after about 30 short years, we claim them as our original ideas and cling on to them for dear life.

Anyway, brains. More specifically, what our brains say to us - self talk. You know, you are standing naked in front of the vanity basin mirror, poised to step tentatively onto the bathroom scale when out of nowhere your evil brain suddenly comes up with "I can't stand this any longer. I'm sick of trying to lose weight. It's impossible. If I haven't lost 1/2kg today, I'm just going to gorge a whole king sized Mars Bar - no wait, two Mars Bars and a can of coke (not diet coke) and a jumbo packet of corn chips".

Where did this thought come from? Any why is it so perversely convincing?

Your evil brain, the one that tells you you are a miserable, worthless failure, is trying to trick you. You cannot give in to your evil brain. Make a joke of it. Smirk inwardly (or even outwardly; I'm assuming there is no-one observing your naked bathroom struggle but you and your good and evil brains).

This notion of failure is not to be tolerated. It is ridiculous. Don't listen to yourself. Accept setbacks and pauses in your diet and exercise goals; setback are not valid reasons to stop and go back to the dark, flabby side. They are just a part of life to be dealt with. Deal with your setbacks and move forward.

Turn off your evil brain. Simple to say, but not easy to do. But do it - nothing worth doing is ever going to be easy. It wasn't for me, it won't be for you. Rest assured however that this empowering tactic does become more automatic and less difficult the more you use it.

Don't worry about why you always talk down to yourself and what happened to you as a child; the bullying and teasing, the missed opportunities, the misunderstandings, the pain of coping with life. That way lies self pity and that is no use at all.

Don't waste your precious time with endless amateur psychoanalysis.

Just turn on your good brain. Treat yourself with the respect and positivity you would afford any good friend or even a casual acquaintance.

You are the only person in the world who can totally and utterly support you. Give it your all. Care about yourself. Look after yourself. You deserve it.

Next time you are poised, breathless (tummy sucked in) at the bathroom scales, don't give any time to the thoughts of your evil brain. Slap them to the bathmat and kick them while they are down.

Never give up. Never surrender.