Maria's Last Diet

There is self-evaluation in every endeavor. Did you do it right? Did you do it well? What should you have done differently? This is true of the weight loss process too. You will evaluate how well or how poorly you carry out your day-to-day weight loss routine and how efficiently you address any obstacles that make it difficult for you to lose weight.

Where there is self-evaluation there is evaluation anxiety. Everyone has had experience with evaluation anxiety at some time in her life. You probably know it best as anxiety that comes when you are faced with another person or other people judging your performance. It is anxiety that is specific to certain situations, like a math test or public speaking or a sporting event. In the case of weight loss, you are usually facing yourself, and you are the judge of how you are doing. It’s your own evaluation of your “performance” that makes you anxious: “I know I won’t do well.” “I really messed up at breakfast.” “She didn’t praise me and I went right to food.”

One of the serious consequences of your evaluation anxiety is that it affects your self-confidence. Your anxiety can make you lose confidence and you end up not being able to do the week’s weight loss activities the way you wanted to. Another possible consequence of evaluation anxiety is that you might try to protect your self-confidence by avoiding or procrastinating instead of taking a weight loss step. Or, instead of avoiding, you might reduce your effort so you can say to yourself, “I didn’t try, that’s why I didn’t make it.” In this way, you keep your self-confidence because you didn’t fail. You didn’t really try.

Since self-evaluation is a necessary component of any endeavor, including the weight loss process, you can figure that evaluation anxiety will be part of the process as well. To maintain your self-confidence, it’s best if you devote a part of your weight loss effort to dealing directly with your evaluative anxiety. See what about your performance is causing you to be anxious and see what you can do about it.

If you would like more help with this, please go to The Reading Room and the White Paper, both of which are in the left-hand column of this blog at MariasLastDiet.com. Or, if you want to have an actual book or an e-book to read through and refer to, check out the weight-loss books for women section on the right-hand side of this blog.

If you are looking for more specific help, email us at and we will point you in the right direction.

The weight loss process is not only a test of you losing weight. It is also a test of your self-confidence. There’s nothing like a bunch of must-do weight loss activities to take the legs right out from under your confidence.  

While confidence is usually defined as appreciation of abilities or qualities, yours or someone else’s, there is much more to be said about it than this. For example, there is self-confidence, which means having confidence or faith in yourself. There is expectation: the expectation that you can and will do it. There is a certainty to confidence. You are certain of your ability to do what it takes. Right along with certainty is conviction. There is also definiteness and a feeling of staunchness. There is belief, belief that you have what it takes to do what it takes to reach the goal(s) you set. You also believe you have what it takes or can learn to do what it takes to deal with events and situations that would otherwise prevent you from reaching your goal(s). A silent partner with confidence is feeling positive. When you are self-confident, feeling positive about yourself and your capability and competence comes with the territory. 

You should also add self-assurance and some of the other self-states to your list of what is involved in feeling confident. Of the other self states that are tightly bound up with having confidence in yourself, one is certainly self-esteem, the definition of which is confidence in your own worth. The other closely related self-states are self-worth, self-regard, and self-respect.

One of your goals during the process of weight loss will certainly be having all the confidence you need. You may not consciously think about this goal, but it will be there working continuously behind the scene and right there in your face, contributing mightily to your weight loss effort.