Subscribe in a reader
So you’re ready to have at it. Successful weight loss here you come. You have a lot invested in losing some weight. You want to do it well. You pride yourself on being able to do lots of things well. Losing unwanted weight, though, has always thrown you. But this time you’re ready, readier than you’ve ever been.
The scene is set, and you go ahead. You make a great start by choosing good diet food. You’ve gone a day, two days, a week, two weeks; you’re sticking to your great dieting plan. You’re proud of yourself, and pleased with how well you are dieting. Yes, you’ve definitely lost some weight, about four pounds. Not bad.
BUT… (You knew there was going to be a “but”. There always is when it comes to losing unwanted weight). Keeping up your momentum is becoming more of a chore. You know this is so because of how you feel, and by what you forget to do. You are not eagerly preparing your food like you did over the first two weeks. You forgot to buy the yogurt you’ve been using to replace your snack-on-any-available junk-food behavior. You don’t realize it but you’ve been snapping at your children and your husband. They’ve been noticing it and complaining about you being too touchy.
What happened to you that made you lose all that steam you had when you started your dieting plan, and kept it up for the last two weeks.
Here’s what probably happened, as it happens to so many women going through the weight-loss process. The process gets harder. It’s difficult to keep up your good performance. Old ways creep back in and threaten to derail your weight-loss efforts. Feelings of deprivation may increase. You find that you’re losing confidence. You’ve invested a lot in doing what you set out to do, and when you run up against weight-loss steps that throw you, you begin to doubt your ability to do what it takes. You also begin to lose some of your commitment to stay on your diet.
What’s the antidote? Don’t overinvest yourself in how you are doing. Difficult weight-loss steps are going to come up. They are inevitable. See, whenever you’re faced with weight-loss difficulties, if you can take more of a learning-how-to attitude. “I am really up against it when it comes to keeping motivated to lose weight.” Here’s the learning-how-to attitude. “What can I do to teach myself how to maintain my dieting motivation?”
Forget how you’re doing (well, not entirely). More to the point, don’t dwell on how you’re doing. Think of it like this. In any life task that is difficult enough to throw you, you absolutely must take a “I will learn how to do this” point of view. The same is true for the weight-loss process. Successful weight loss belongs to the woman who strives to learn how to.
