Maria's Last Diet

by Maria's Last Diet

What do you expect will happen when you are dieting, trying to lose the weight? Seriously, now, what do you expect will happen?

You might think that if you believe you will do well, you will. There’s certainly some truth to this proposition. But there is only some truth.  

What you expect will happen does influence your weight-loss motivation, but the outcome is always also influenced by the difficulty of the task at hand. It can’t be too, too hard, but hard enough to make for a challenge. Interestingly, challenging tasks can enhance the chance of what you expect will actually happen; that is if you are the kind of person who persists when faced with a challenge.  

Another influential factor in making what you expect come true is what you think of yourself and your own abilities. If you think well of yourself and your abilities, and you mix this with a weight-loss challenge and persistence, you are again likely to achieve what you expect of yourself.  

But, and you probably knew there was a “but”, the recipe calls for still one more ingredient in order to come out right. This last ingredient is the degree to which you engage in and enjoy the effort of your own thinking.  

There you have it: the ingredients for achieving your weight-loss goal.      

• a positive expectation of the outcome     
• enough self-confidence in your abilities     
• challenging enough tasks     
• persistence     
• enjoying the effort of using your mind to solve your weight problem  

Now it’s up to you to figure out the proportions. Hint—to taste.

by Maria's Last Diet

When it comes to losing weight, the unpleasant truth you’ve got to face is _________________. Fill in the blank.

Can you face it? Can you even name it?

If you can name it and face it, will you have a better shot at losing the weight you want to lose?

The answer is a resounding YES!!

 Here are some reasons why.

  You could

• be proved wrong
• become more knowledgeable
• gain relief from facing things
• correct a mistake or rectify a bad decision
• see that it wasn’t so unpleasant after all
• stop dwelling on it
• find that you’ve missed a great opportunity
• stop avoiding it
• start a process of discovery

Try it out and see for yourself.

We’re rooting for you.

by Maria's Last Diet

Solving an eating problem is big.

If you are an out-of-control eater, taking control of your eating involves everything you are, everything you do, think, want, are afraid of, everything you assume, believe, don't believe, count on.

Taking control of your eating will affect how you are with all the people in your life. It will rearrange things, it will prioritize, it will include, it will discard, it will judge, and it will accept.

If you are an out-of-control eater, taking control of your eating will hurt, it will be tough, it will have its ups and downs, it will mean some failures and mistakes, and it will mean a deep important, positive life-enhancing change.

If you are a woman whose life is curtailed, or impeded, or made uncomfortable by an eating problem, solving it will bring rewards beyond what you might expect.

If you are an out-of-control eater and you are a woman, click on the Find Your Issue link to the right to start on solving your eating problem now.

by Maria's Last Diet

From a psychological viewpoint, losing weight successfully - which means for good - requires quite a bit of change on your part.

So, how do you prepare yourself for change?

The first and most important way is to establish within yourself a belief in the possibility of change.

How do you do this? ...by believing in your own abilities.

A big part of believing in your own abilities is having hope and having faith.

Here are two ways to strengthen your feelings of hope and your faith that you can do it.

• One is to be encouraged by the success of others
• Another is to draw encouragement from your own past successes in changing your behavior.

So, let's think about the first way, taking encouragement from the success of others. We love to read other women's weight loss success stories, don't we? They are inspiring, they give us hope, they say to us: this can be done. I haven't done it yet, but this woman finally did do it. She, too, failed numerous times, but then she was able to do it. She had temptations also, just like I do. She must have gotten discouraged at times, just like I always do. But she learned how to keep going.

If she could do it, why can't I do it? Let me go back over the different things she points out, strategies she used, things she learned. After all, I am a capable individual also, and I can surely arrive at important insights and ideas for the solution of this weight-loss problem I have.

If she could do it, so can I.

Let's consider the second way to up your hope and faith - drawing encouragement from your own past success in changing a behavior.

Ask:

• What important change have I made in my life in the past 5 years?
• How did I do it?
• What was my first step?
• What were the obstacles?
• How did I overcome the obstacles enough to accomplish this change?
• What personal strength or strong points helped me do this?
• If these strengths are part of my character, how can I use them again to make the changes needed to lose weight?

by Maria's Last Diet

One thing we all know about is how imposing strict rules can have a paradoxical effect. Certainly, substance abusers - people who have problems with smoking, drugs, food - have seen this effect at work in themselves.

Have you?

You need to lose weight. You go on a weight-loss diet, and tell yourself NO candy, bread, ice cream, chips, fast food, etc. But the energy it takes to stifle the longing for the "forbidden" can trigger the opposite response - an increased desire for just what's been forbidden.

Yet you can't lose weight by eating all the junk food, sugar, etc. What to do?

One helpful concept is to concentrate on "I WILL" do such and such, rather than "I WILL NOT" do such and such.

So, let's say you're dieting, and you're going out to dinner with friends. Instead of recounting the rules of what NOT to do or what NOT to have, how about looking on the positive side, what you WILL do or have.

For instance:

• I'll bring with me a note to myself and pull it out of my purse just before I order. It will remind me of what I want for myself.

   or

• I'll see my old favorites on the menu and I'll tell myself after I lose the weight, I can certainly have this from time to time, just not right now.

   or

• Before we order I'll tell my friends about how much I want to stay on my weight-loss diet, and enlist their helpfulness and support.