I Keep Losing and Gaining weight; What should I do?

I have seen other obese people face lifestyle-related diseases such as diabetes and high blood pressure and realized that, if I did not change, I would likely face these same obstacles. I was determined to reduce my weight but I don’t know what went wrong that I could not keep my last year resolution intact. I had nurtured my career but ignored my health. I realized I needed to spend more time on me. Please help me to figure out how to keep my 2013’s resolution intact —reduce my weight.

Thank you

Confused Obese 

Dear Confused!

You’re not alone who blew your New Year’s resolution. It turns out that fewer than one in twenty of us succeed off our own at changing a longstanding habit that has kept us from advancing our career, improving a relationship, getting healthier, or becoming financially fit.Generally, our change plans fall into one of two traps:because of which cannot keep your new year’s resolution.Most of us fail to change because we believe the best predictor of our capacity to change is the quantity of willpower we possess. When we finally give up on willpower, we hope we can kill bad habits with a single new pill, surgery, gadget, or fad. For example, a friend loses weight, and we buy the same diet book. It’s only a matter of months before we’re back to bad habits and looking for the next quick fix. The problem with these approaches is that it assumes one simple change will get us to overcome deeply intractable patterns of behavior.

Luckily, there are more efficient ways for personal change than either willpower or magic bullets. In fact, there’s a way to design personal change that makes you ten times more likely to succeed in projects like weight management. This method is based on three simple but powerful ideas. The step one is realizing the problem is not that you lack will; it’s that you’re blind to many forces that shape your behavior, and you’re outnumbered by the forces you are n’t taking advantage of.And there forces may be working against your aims. Second important thing is take role of a scientist who’s dealing with problem. Most of us shop for magic bullets as though someone else might have figured out the key to changing you. They haven’t. No one knows all of the unique dynamics that affect your weight, relationships, career, finances, or health. You’ll have to embark on a scientific study of your own behavior to discover the key to changing you. The third point is taking your failure as a good data and not becoming discouraged. When you fail to change, the problem is not you—it’s your plan.

It’s time to leave behind failed approaches. Over the past years, I am sure you have tried variety of fad diets and exercise approaches in an attempt to lose weight. Your biggest problem wasn’t that you couldn’t lose the weight but could not sustain it. You were subject to a lot of unseen forces that were working against your weight management. You could not produce desirable results because there isn’t one reason we’re doing what we’re doing—there are many powerful forces around us that influence our choices, and these choices ultimately culminate into our success or failure.  Unless we focus on all these forces, we’re as likely to win at change as a person in a one-against-many tug-of-war. Change literally becomes inevitable when all of the shrewd forces are tamed that provoke you into bad habits.Decide you want to permanently lose weight. Educate yourself. Set a realistic weight loss goal in mind. Formulate a structured weight loss plan with your doctor and receive proper follow-up. To make it possible, follow a comprehensive plan comprising of a multipronged attack.

To start a concrete plan, first you need to reshape your perspective. You need to change the way you thought about success. Everything depends on the way you look at things. You cannot have the success without the failures. Part of you did n’t believe you could reach your goal. To overcome the doubt, you need to visualize your goal as if you have achieved it already. These walking talking visualizations will help you not only change your underlying negative perceptions, but also stay motivated.Believe in making possible the impossible. Instead of giving yourself reasons why you can't, give yourself reasons why you can. Remember anything is possible; it’s your choice whether or not you choose to make it happen. When it came to restructuring your diet; change your eating habits to healthy behaviors you need to adopt in order to change your habits. Do not just adopt a low calorie diet adopt but a healthy lifestyle, and replace your bad habits with healthy habits. 

Another important thing which I would like to suggest you is to look for a people who have lost weight successfully in your circle. Ask for their help. Distance yourself from those who draw you back into your old eating habits. Take an honest account of friends and accomplices. Are your close friends and family accomplices or active supporters? Who models, encourages or enables your bad habit? Who could you spend more time with that would do the opposite? Then Surround yourself with supporters. Ask these group members to hold you accountable for your behavior.  Take full advantage of available coaching and encouragement succeed.  Leave something on the plate, each time you eat.  Use smaller crockery. Eat low calorie-food with bulk and eat is slowly consuming lot of time.

Consistency is a vital attitude for any change plan. To stay motivated plan rewards for you. For example, if you are a life-long pizza lover, reward yourself with a pizza dinner every Saturday evening if you had stayed on track throughout the week. This weekly reward will keep you motivated.

The last but not the least is to Shape Your Environment. The largest barriers to success are the extra time you spend. So prioritize your time and become very protective of even small pockets of time you could reserve for exercise. Learn to build barriers and say “no” in order to protect the time you had set aside for your health.Do not skip meals. Keep healthy snacks on hand, such as raw vegetables with low calorie dips, or fruits. Choose foods high in fiber such as fruits and vegetables with moderate portions of whole-grain breads, cereals, and rice. These foods will give you more chewing satisfaction while the higher fiber content may make you feel fuller on fewer calories. To ensure you are eating healthy, keep an accurate food journal. Write down everything you eat or drink once before sleeping. Be honest and accurate, otherwise the journal is not as helpful. The food journal will help you learn about your eating habits and help you assess the food choices you are making. By incorporating each of these small changes, I am sure you will lose approximately one pound each week. This will not only help you to reduce weight, it will equip you with some essential paradigmsand skills that you can apply to change anything you want.

Wish you Best of Luck

Dr. Sadaqat Ali