“I don’t really like vegetables.”

Until recently, this was a thought that I believed to be true. I had lots of evidence. Over my lifetime there has been a veritable trail of vegetables that I had eaten and thought, “Blagh.”

My New Year’s resolution to improve my nutrition meant more fruits and vegetables. The fruit I was down with. Heck, I even adore some of the summer vegetables. But January? As far as I was concerned, January is the peak of the winter-vegetable doldrums.

When I shared my goals for 2012 with my Life Coach (yes, us coaches have coaches because we know the power of coaching!), I boldly stated my limiting belief about vegetables. She asked me a key question that helped me shift my perspective about vegetables just enough that I was able to see a path around this obstacle.

Her brilliant question was, “How could you make eating vegetables more fun?”

I determined that I could look for some new recipes. And I also could push past another limiting belief I had about drinking anything green and add some spinach to my protein shakes.

It turns out that I love vegetables! I especially love my Green Protein Shakes. Who knew that spinach, banana, vanilla protein powder, and cinnamon could taste so good? (Well, I guess lots of people did, but I had to overcome that limiting belief myself.)

How often do we limit ourselves because of an opinion, judgment, thought, idea, or past experience that we just assume is true?

For instance, how many of you have ever heard, “You have to clean your plate because there are starving children somewhere in the world?”

Do you think that’s a limiting belief?

How true is it that your cleaning your plate is going to benefit any of those starving children?

How can that belief actually be harmful to you?

• Cleaning your plate teaches you to disregard your body’s guidance that it’s had enough.
• Eating too much food is at the heart of being overweight, which has serious health consequences.
• People are often concerned about wasting food. Extra food will either go to waste in the garbage or will go to waste in your body. You can either waste it, or you waist it.
• It contributes to a lack mentality. The feeling that “there isn’t enough so I have to eat more than I need.”

A lot of times, helping people see the flaws in their thinking is enough to help them move beyond it. But changing a long-standing belief system can impact underlying values.

If you’re upset by the idea of not cleaning your plate, what are the values you have that may be being challenged?

• If it’s wanting to help those in need, what would be a more constructive action than cleaning your plate? Maybe donating to charities that feed the poor?
• If the value is being sustainable, maybe you’ll want to start a composting system?
• If it’s really just fear or lack, then maybe you have some work to do about trusting the abundance of the Universe?

Whenever you notice a thought that is holding you back in any way, ask yourself if that thought is still true. Unless it is a Universal Truth—a thought that is true no matter what, no matter who, and no matter when—what is it that you need to do to shift it?

All it takes is challenging those limiting beliefs just enough so that doors open, paths unfold, and obstacles disappear.

Together we can do it!

Photo by Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net