What about your competence when it comes to dieting? Is competence even a relevant term here?
We prize the competence of others, especially when it comes to counting on them for doing a good job. If you were having someone do your dieting for you so you could lose the weight, wouldn't you want her to be competent? So why not be competent yourself when it comes to dieting.
Here are some of the ins and outs of competence.
You can be competent because you have a history of having done it. You can feel competent, without actually having a history of doing it. Feeling competent is about believing or expecting yourself to be competent. If you have low expectations for yourself, especially about losing weight, imagining yourself as competent can preserve your hope in becoming confident. The value of expecting yourself to "become" makes plugging away at a task like dieting seem worthwhile.
In a nutshell, if you haven't done it before (losing weight by successful dieting, that is), believing is the next best thing. Believing that you will gain the competence you need is what will strengthen your resolve to do what you need to do to get to your weight-loss goal.
So, here's to competence: being, believing, and imagining yourself to be.
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