How to Cope with the Ugly Process of Reaching Weight Loss Goals

I naturally resist change. 

Even when doing nothing, just sitting.  Even when doing something that doesn’t produce results.  Inertia, sameness, acquiescence.  That’s what I call those silent, dominating forces that quell my unreasonable thoughts about actually changing my weight.  Change?  Bah!

Especially, radical change. 

When pursuing weight loss goals, “to lose three waistline inches and be fit, trim, healthy, and happy,” for some, as it was for me at first, was too much change for my noggin to mentally cope with.  It was out of bounds.  I could hear that penalty judge shrieking his whistle in my mind.  That weight loss referee, stopping the game, “Too much to lose! Return to safer goals.”

A few weight loss friends of mine, who’ll go unnamed, have tried the name-brand goals approach: “Lose 7 Pounds in 7 Days,” only to see the belly fat rebound with a vengeance and come back in tumblers.  At such time, I’m reminded to consider the simple old saying,

“If things aren’t working, try something different.”

Like something less like fireworks (that blow up quickly and are gone) and more like flowers (that grow slowly, blossom unhurriedly, and remain for the season).  More gradual weight loss goals are not only healthier physically, but more desirable emotionally.  It allows for you to accept your new self-image and to actually believe in yourself as a permanently slim person.

This is what change does.  It changes you.  Adopt it.

When a dieter is asked, “How are you doing?” the typical response is “I’ve lost so many pounds.”  Well, an answer that would lean better on the long-term success wall of permanent change would be something like, “My attitude toward eating is changing in whole.”  Learning to eat healthy foods and attaining a lean body is a process of gradual attainment.

Instead of measuring your scale weight, measure the progress of your weight loss goals in terms of behavior change. 

For example, some things to measure besides body weight:

·         Exercising when you really didn’t want to.

·         Taking a bite of something, then putting your fork down because it’s “not worth it.”

·         Tuning in to what you really want to eat, and it’s steamed vegetables not a cheeseburger.

·         Leaving food on your plate when you are already comfortably full.

The process of shaping new attitudes is akin to a Bonsai tree. 

Its beauty is created through patient pruning and the subtle directing of tiny shoots over a long periods of time.  Likewise, you are reshaping your body.  Start from within.  The essence.   Then direct the outward with patience.

Like water flowing into a polluted pond that circulates, that mixes, that gradually filters through the old slime, then clears it, the process of change is not immediate in nature.  Neither is the change from night to morning. 

Can you pinpoint the exact minute morning has come?

No.  Nor should you expect your healthy life to start right now, because you merely voiced it so. 

My journey was like this. 

Though I may have written out my weight loss goals, my change into a healthy trim persona went through this natural process of change, swirling my attitudes within myself first, then trickling them out into my behaviors, one little battle at a time. 

I acknowledged the smallest achievements.

The tiniest baby steps – the good feelings I got when I don’t feel bloated after a meal, the energy I felt when I would wake up in the morning recharged, the exuberance at taking a good walk during the day – these were my measurements of change.

If you are seeking the trim life, you are about to make big changes in your life concerning food, exercise, and attitude toward other people. 

As with all undertakings, you need a bit of courage to get started.  Each time you have a small success, it’ll reinforce the promise you made to your goal.  It will encourage you to continue, and your momentum will increase as you get closer to your goal.

If you have many years of damaging eating patterns to overcome, give yourself time. 

Ending a destructive relationship with food and substituting new, more successful behaviors is not easy.  This is an evolutionary, lifetime change you are making.  Be compassionate and understanding with yourself, just as you would be to a stranger who got into trouble but is now committed to the process of improving.  Just so, you are committed to your weight loss goals.

Expect to have setbacks. 

They are inevitable, and actually assist you in the learning process by making your new decisions even stronger.

I stopped for a couple of donuts at the local convenient store on the way home one evening, because I was exhausted and momentarily hungry from the long day.  I would be home in 20 minutes, yet I stopped.  Afterwards, I felt the thump in my stomach and that uncomfortable feeling of too much sugar.  I won’t do that again (for awhile, anyway), because my choice to listen to my true self and not just my body’s immediate desires and resist those urges was just given a shot of resolve.

Once you acknowledge the fact that your new plan is designed for the rest of your life, small lapses are not a problem.  Think of fallbacks as skirmishes of battle, having no bearing on the eventual outcome of the war.

It’s true that life isn’t fair. 

Yes, some people can eat anything and everything and never gain an ounce.  It would be nice if the world were different, and everyone was given the same deal at the start of the game, but that is not reality. 

The key, bottom-line, pivotal truth, however, is that “Fatness Is a Reversible Condition.”

Unlike a terrible disease for which there is no cure, your brain, mouth, and fork can solve this problem forever.  The underlying message here is to program your mind, in increments, that losing weight is an achievable goal.  It can be done.  It is a change process.  Inside and, then, outside.  And, YOU can do it.  You can achieve your weight loss goals.